Hyderabad: Though the Centre enacted the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (Land Acquisition Act, 2013), the governments of Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh are adopting their own methods to procure land for their quick development projects.
The AP government has enacted the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014 and formulated the AP Capital City Land Pooling Scheme (formulation and implementation) Rules, 2015, to procure land for the development of the capital city through negotiations and mutual consent with farmers.
Though the AP government has been claiming that it has secured 33,000 acres for building the capital city under the land pooling scheme, a number of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the CRDA Act, 2014 and LPS Rules are pending before the High Court for adjudication.
The AP government has proposed to establish a greenfield airport at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district spread over 5,300 acres. It has issued notification for acquisition of land for the project. It has also issued a notification exempting the airport from social impact assessment, which is mandatory under the 2013 Central Act.
Aggrieved by the notifications, scores of farmers from Bhogapuram moved the High Court which directed the AP revenue authorities not to dispossess the petitioners of the land until further orders.
According to Mr A. Satya Prasad, senior counsel and former additional advocate general, the district collector, on August 31, 2015, issued a notification exempting the provisions of Chapters II and III of the 2013 Act for acquiring land for the proposed airport at Bhogapuram.
He said that the collector issued the notification under Ordinance No.5 of 2015, which was intended to exempt several infrastructure projects from the social impact assessment. The Ordinance, however, lapsed on the same day when the collector issued the notification.
He said that the collector had no power to issue notification under the lapsed ordinance. The Telangana state government issued GO Ms No 123 on July 30, 2015, and GO Ms No 214 on November 28, 2015, to purchase land for irrigation and infrastructure projects.
Both the GOs were quashed by the High Court when agricultural labourers from Medak district said that their livelihood was severely affected due to the procurement of land to set up the National Manufacturing and Infrastructure Zone.
The High Court ruled that keeping in view the rights of the agricultural labourers who are from a lower strata of society and who have no other source of income, it is quashing both the GOs, declaring them illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional and against the concept of a welfare state.
When the state government moved an appeal before the High Court, a division bench, while staying the quashing of the GOs, put several conditions to protect the interests of artisans and agricultural labourers.
Similarly, the Telangana state government has struggled to procure land for the Mallannasagar and Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation schemes through GO 123 as scores of farmers and artisans and agriculture labourers have been approaching the High Court.
The GO Ms No 45 issued by the government on July 22, 2015, to purchase land from land owners through private negotiations for the Green Pharma City at Mucherla in Ranga Reddy district, was stayed when the assigned land owners from Ranga Reddy district moved a petition challenging the GO.
The petitioners, who had approached the High Court against GO 123, said the state government had no power to buy land through executive orders when the land acquisition laws were in force.
According to TS advocate-general K. Rama-krishna Reddy, the state government has the power to procure or purchase land for public purpose in accordance with Article 298 of the Constitution.
