Hyderabad: The Telangana state government, eager to acquire land for irrigation and infrastructure projects, has decided to invoke the urgency clause under the Central land Act, 2013. It has been forced to take this step because of the litigation it is facing when acquiring land through negotiations under Government Orders 123, 124 and 45.
The government issued the notification under the urgency clause to acquire about 775 acres in Vemulaghat in Medak district for construction of the Mallannasagar, part of the Kaleswaram project.
It now wants to extend this clause to other parts of the state, hoping to overcome strong resistance from villagers to the acquisition of their land as happened in the last week of July.
Section 40 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 allows the Central and state governments to issue notifications for land acquisition in emergency circumstances like natural calamities and defence requirements by following the due process of law, and paying compensation as required and calculated under the Act.
The section specifies that “Special powers in case of urgency to acquire land in certain cases. In case of urgency, whenever the appropriate government so directs, the collector, though no such award has been made, may, on the expiry of 30 days from the publication of notice mentioned in Section 21, take possession of any land needed for public purpose and such land shall there upon vest absolutely with the government, free from all encumbrances.”
Vemulaghat villagers opposed to surrendering their lands under GO 123 are demanding acquisition of their lands through the Central 2013 Act as it provides better compensation.
Mr N.S. Arjun Kumar, the advocate who is filing the case on behalf of some farmers of the village, said the notification cannot be sustained under the law as sub-section (2) of Section 40 says the powers of the government shall be restricted to the minimum area required for the defence of India or national security or for emergencies arising out of natural calamities and or any other reason with the approval of Parliament.
