Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court decided to ascertain facts about the facilities and infrastructure provided on a temporary basis at the Batasingaram fruit market till the Koheda Market premises works are completed for full-fledged trading.
This after the Telangana State government and the wholesale fruit commission agents and traders of Gaddiannaram Market stuck to their guns over the issue of shifting of the market from Gaddiannaram to Batasingaram by filing several petitions.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satishchandra Sharma and Justice Rajashekar Reddy on Tuesday appointed advocate K Vinaykumar as the Court Commission to report on the ground situation at the Batasingaram market. They would inspect the premises and take statements from traders, who have already commenced the business activities there.
This directions were issued by the division bench while dealing with the contempt case and other appeals and petitions filed by the wholesale fruit commission agents association, complaining that they were not being allowed into Gaddiannaram market, despite the court orders dated October 4, 2021.
In this order, the court had directed the state government and the agricultural market committee to allow the agents and traders to do trading activities at the Gaddiannaram market premises till further orders.
The bench questioned the official respondents as to why they were disregarding the court orders and noted that there are no subsequent directions supporting the government decision in declaring a holiday for Gaddiannaram market. The court said trading activities must be allowed.
The court responded positively to a request from government counsel Aandavelli Sanjeev Kumar to appoint a Court Commission and send it to immediately ascertain the ground situation at Batasingaram market premises before issuing any directions.
Further, counsel submitted that the government will comply with the orders issued by the court once the report of the commission is received. He prayed before the court that facts will come out by evening if the commission would do an inspection immediately.
He submitted that a group of traders who are not interested in the shifting of the market from Gaddiannaram is trying to buy time by filing the petitions. “But, the government is firm that it would build a super specialty hospital in 22 acres of the Gaddiannaram market area and some of funds have been allocated. If there is a delay in shifting, the construction of the hospital would be delayed, he said.
Gangaiah Naidu, senior counsel for traders, informed the court that the AMC officials with the help of the police are not permitting trade to take place at the Gaddiannaram fruit market despite court orders asking the officials not to force the traders to shift from there. He disputed the contentions of Sanjeev Kumar and said the facilities created at Batasingaram are not sufficient and it is not conducive for the traders and commission agents to shift to Batasingaram and perform the trading there.
The petitioner traders have earlier submitted to the court that they were ready to shift the market to Koheda, which is a permanent place created by the government, after the works are completed there. But, they opposed shifting to Batasingaram, it being a temporary place.
The government's contention is that the works will be completed at Koheda in a year’s time. If it waited till then, the hospital project would be delayed.
