Move to acquire land for helipad at Karimnagar shelved

Five people had challenged land acquisition move in High Court

The new signage of Telangana High Court in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Close to four months after issuing a notification to acquire land at Theegalaguttapalli village on Karimnagar city outskirts for construction of helipad adjacent to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s residence, the Telangana government on Tuesday withdrew the land acquisition proceedings.

A statement from Karimnagar district collector Sarfaraz Ahmad said the CM has decided to withdraw the land acquisition proceedings for helipad construction. As such, the proceedings were withdrawn, it said. Considering the threat perception for the CM, the higher authorities had decided to construct a helipad close to Mr. Rao's private residence, describing the latter as CM's camp office.

Govt. notification

The government issued a notification on October 27, 2018 to acquire five acres and 14 guntas of land for this purpose under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act-2013.

The Hindu had carried a news story on the proposed acquisition of land for helipad adjacent to the CM's private residence.

Lok Satta, a non-governmental organisation fighting for public interest issues, represented to the district officials to withdraw the proceedings in public interest stating that the Chief Minister’s residence in Karimnagar was a private one.

Meanwhile, five persons -including two women- who received notices for land acquisition moved the Telangana High Court, challenging the notification.

They contended that the proposed land acquisition was not in public interest and violates the provisions of the RFCTLARR Act-2013. After hearing the petitioners' lawyer V. Raghunath and Special Government Pleader A. Sanjeeva Kumar, Justice Challa Kodanda Ram issued notices to the government to file counter affidavit on the matter.

A day after the judge’s direction, the government withdrew the land acquisition proceedings. “Withdrawal of proceedings is people's victory. No government can arbitrarily take away people's lands,” reacted the petitioners' lawyer V. Raghunath.

The writ petition challenging the notification would become infructuous with the government itself withdrawing the proceedings, he added.