The Telangana High Court on Sunday directed the State government to provide accommodation with basic amenities to members of 16 tribal families, who were evacuated from forest in Komalgondi village of Kumram Bheem district.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther after heads of the 16 families were presented before the bench on Sunday evening following a habeas corpus petition filed by the Telangana Civil Liberties Committee. The heads of the tribal families, some of them women, were brought in a bus to the residence of the ACJ at Kundanbagh by 5 p.m. as per the bench’s order issued the previous day.
As a battery of media persons waiting outside vied with one another, clicking pictures and recording videos, the officials ushered in the tribals amid tight security by the Punjagutta police. University professors Jayadheer Tirumala Rao and Guduru Vanaja, who had been requisitioned by the bench to assist it in interacting with the tribals, also attended the hearing. At the bench’s direction, they interacted with two of the detenues brought there, with the help of a translator.
Instructions to govt.
After hearing the government counsel and CLC president G. Laxman’s counsel V. Raghunath, the bench instructed the government to ensure that the tribal families being evacuated from the forest were provided with all amenities, complying with the provisions of the government’s rehabilitation and resettlement policy.
As per the bench’s direction, the government agreed to accommodate them in a welfare hostel at Wankhade where all basic amenities can be provided to at least 100 persons.
Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther directed the government to provide them with 91 acres of land within six months. The government should also get houses constructed for the 16 evacuated families, the order said. Facilities like borewells must be made available to the families for cultivation of land, the bench said. In case of any violation or non-fulfilment of the rehabilitation provisions, the petitioner and the evacuated families could approach the HC for contempt of court orders, the bench said.
