Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday stayed till further notice the acquisition of land in Jeerlacheruvu and Kusum-anchi villages of Khammam district for expansion of National Highway No 365 B. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a petition by Telangana Vyavasaya Karm-ika Sangham challenging the two notifications issued by the district collector.
Ms B. Rachna Reddy, counsel for the petitioners, told the court that National Highways Authority of India when issued the notification to acquire lands for the expansion of the Highway as a four-lane road, the farmers represented to the Union transport minister stating that they are poor farmers and land acquisition will deprive of livelihood. She told the court that the minister assured to look into their grievances, but the collector issued two notifications to acquire the lands.
She said the NHAI has separate set of rules to acquire the land and it issues notification under the Land Acqui-sition Act 2013 and not under the State Act 2017.
