HYDERABAD: Justice J Sreenivas Rao of the Telangana high court on Thursday stayed the ongoing land acquisition at Lagacherla and Hakimpet villages in Vikarabad district for a proposed industrial park. The judge passed the interim direction while hearing two petitions filed by Pathlavath Gopal Nayak and 14 others of Lagacherla and Kummari Shiva Kumar of Hakimpet, who challenged the land acquisition process.
Apart from suspending the ongoing land acquisition order, the judge sought counters from the state, revenue department and land acquisition authorities by April 7.
According to senior advocates BS Prasad and V Raghunath, who argued the cases of the farmers, the state govt withdrew the land acquisition last year following protests from people opposing the proposed pharma city in their land. However, the district collector again started the process of acquiring land this time for an industrial park. The state govt, through the district collector, had issued a gazette notification for acquiring the land for the industrial park on an urgent basis and even claimed exemption under Section 10-A of the Land Acquisition Act. The section allows the state to avail exemption from hearing the farmers and their objections, conducting social impact assessment, etc., while setting up infra projects. But to avail the benefit under this section state has to show sufficient reasons, the advocates said.
The authorities have not shown any reasons for availing the benefit and they merely re-issued the same notification that was withdrawn just days before the issuance of a new one in Nov 2024.
Apart from suspending the ongoing land acquisition order, court sought counters from the state, revenue department and land acquisition authorities
