In a shock to both the state government and the bureaucrats who claimed that rehabilitation and resettlement amounts were paid to a group of petitioners for their agricultural lands, the Telangana High Court sentenced a collector and two officials to three months’ simple imprisonment in a contempt case.
Into details, Rajanna-Sircilla District Collector D Krishna Bhaskar, Joint Collector Yasmin Basha, and land acquisition officer-cum-revenue divisional officer N Srinivasa Rao who were deployed with land acquisitions for Ananthasagar Reservoir as part of the Kaleswaram project are jailed for three months and a fine of Rs 2,000 for disobeying court orders.
11 landowners from Anantagiri village of Sircilla district, whose land was submerged by a reservoir of the Kaleshwaram project. While the HC passed orders to the collector and others to not carry out any construction work that could affect the petitioners’ the construction work went on and the petitioners’ lands were submerged.
Further, it was also brought to the court’s notice that the 11 landowners from Anantagiri village of Sircilla district, whose land was submerged were not paid any compensation. Besides the jail term and fine, Justice Ramachandra Rao sentenced the officers and directed them to pay Rs 10,000 to each petitioner.
