The High Court on Thursday admitted and posted to November 28 a writ petition filed by a couple of farmers belonging to Borupalem village in Thullur mandal of Guntur district with the plea to declare the constitution of an expert committee (through G.O.Rt. No. 585 dated September 13, 2019) for reviewing the development strategy for Capital city (Amaravati) as arbitrary, illegal, ultra vires and contrary to the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) Act, 2014 and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
Justice U. Durga Prasada Rao, who heard the matter, posted it for November 28. Advocate Vasireddy Prabhunath represented the farmers.
The petitioners have also prayed that the HC should direct the State government to continue the construction of buildings, roads and infrastructure in the Capital city and the capital region as per the plans approved by the CRDA.
The farmers told the court that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy did not show any interest in continuing the ongoing constructions in Amaravati which could be completed in a short span of time as only about 20% of the works are pending.
The government abruptly stopped the construction activity in the entire Capital city area, including the construction of the High Court building, the roads and other infrastructure works without giving or assigning any reason, they mentioned in their petition.
Their basic contention was that the expert committee cannot review the development plans in the Capital region when there is a statutory authority (CRDA) which has the power to deal with all the issues at stake. Besides, the government could not alter its stand at this juncture, which would be detrimental to farmers in 29 villages who gave parted with their land under the pooling method.
Published - November 15, 2019 12:29 am IST
