Land acquisition: Telangana, AP earn HC ire over compensation

HYDERABAD: Sending out a stern warning that it would stop all land acquisition activities in both AP and Telangana if the respective state governments continue with their practice of first taking away land from farmers and then making them run around courts for compensation, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to the chief secretaries of both the states and directed them to personally appear before the court if they do not file affidavits duly informing the court about the number of cases where they had acquired land but are yet to pay compensation.
The bench of acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice M Ganga Rao, had converted a letter written by G Venkata Krishnaiah, principal district judge, Mahabubnagar, on the plight of the farmers into a public interest petition and sought affidavits from both the states on the status of pending cases where they have yet to pay compensation.
On Tuesday, when the hearing in the case resumed, Telangana special counsel Sanjeev Kumar told the court that their chief commissioner of land administration had filed a report before the court.
₹500Cr dues to be paid to land losers in state
The report says that ₹500 crore dues have to be paid to land losers in Telangana. The bench said the farmers had to go to courts to get compensation. Even after courts ruled in their favour, they are made to file execution petitions. The bench was seeking details of pending EPs in both states, the amount involved and the number of land acquisitions the states made.
The court also turned serious over AP not filing any report. Its counsel said they were still collecting data. The court gave them three weeks to compile the figures and file reports.