Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday told AP and TS governments to crack the whip against the powerful lobby of private bus operators. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G. Shyam Prasad was dealing with a PIL by city advocate K.V. Subba Reddy seeking a direction to the governments to frame guidelines for effective implementation of the provisions of Motor Vehi-cles Act 1988, Motor Trans-port Workers Act, 1961 and AP Motor Transport Workers Rules, 1963.
The bench asked why the governments were taking a lenient view of big private bus operators and targeting small players. The bench said if the governments were not prepared to take stringent action, the court would deal with the issue. The bench felt that the meagre fines would not have any impact. TS Advocate-General D. Prakash Reddy said that operators of 4.28 lakh vehicles had given assurances to the government that they would implement the laws, and 1,247 vehicles had been registered with the transport and labour departments.
The bench said only .05 per cent vehicles were registered and the situation would continue until stringent action was taken against operators. When the bench asked why licenses and permits of operators who have not registered with the departments were not cancelled, the AG said quarterly tax collection would commence in January, and the licences of vehicles which have not registered with the departments would be cancelled. The AG said the government was thinking of increasing the penalty and changing the law. The bench said that when compared to AP, the situation in TS was somewhat better. It sought information of action taken against operators and posted the case to Dec 12.
TS stand sought on Kaleswaram:
The High Court asked the government to spell out its stand on a PIL challenging the change of design from approach channel tunnel system to open gravity canal under the guise of redesigning and re-engineering the Kaleswaram project. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G. Shyam Prasad was admitting the PIL by ex-MLA E. Anil Kumar.
Ms B. Rachana Reddy submitted that due to changes the cost had escalated from Rs 1,300 crore to Rs 2,881 crore. She said the change in design involves recurring expenditure and additional investment in land acquisition though there was no additional benefit. The bench asked the counsel whether they had mentioned in the affidavit about the unfruitful expenditure. When counsel replied in the positive, the bench directed the government file the counter affidavit within three weeks.
Lease of VM HOme land questioned:
Questioning the TS on leasing trust land, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday granted time to it to produce the records pertaining granting lease the land belonging to Victoria Memorial Home in Saroornagar to build the Rachakonda police commissionerate. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G. Shyam Prasad was dealing with a PIL by V.M. Home Orphan Old Students Association president L. Buchi Reddy of challenging the decision of the government to lease 10 acres of land belonging to the VM Home to the police. Counsel appearing for the petitioner said that VM Home was established on 73 acres by the Nizam VI Mir Mahbub Ali Khan in with the objective of educating orphans.
He said that the land belonged to the trust and the state government had no power to lease it. The bench refused to accept the contention of government counsel that the endowments department had the power to lease the land and that the law was amended recently and sought the records.
Polavaram fund under scanner:
The Hyderabad High Court asked the Centre to spell out the reasons behind its announcement that it would bear the cost of Rs16,000 crore for the construction of the Polavaram Project as per the estimated cost as on April 1, 2014. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganthan and Justice G. Shyam Prasad while dealing with a public interest litigation filed by Congress Rajya Sabha member K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao directed the Centre to inform to it about the steps being taken to fulfil the promise made in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 that the total cost of the project would be borne by the Union government.
