HC: Inspect colony for 58 displaced families

A division bench of Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy has directed Junior Civil Judge, Sircilla, to visit the site and resettlement colony put in place by Telangana government at Ananthagiri village in Ellathakunta mandal of Rajanna Sircilla district and file a status report on rehabilitation of 58 families displaced by Kaleshwaram project.

The court’s directive came after displaced families filed a petition in the High Court contending that the resettlement colony and infrastructure facilities created at

Ananthagiri are not up to the mark and the colony is not unfit for habitation.

Counsel for petitioners Ravi Kumar informed the court that the government has only provided halfbaked infrastructure facilities viz. roads, drainage and so on, which are yet to be completed.

The government counsel, however, contended that the government has duly developed the resettlement colony for project-affected families by spending `70 crore. Roads and drainage lines have been laid along with various infrastructure facilities in the designated resettlement colony, where house plots have been allotted to each individual family for constructing houses for them.

As per the High Court’s order, the Sircilla Junior Civil Judge will visit the site in presence of district collector, land acquisition officer and petitioners’ counsel Ravi Kumar, peruse records, check basic infrastructure facilities provided by the government for victims, and file a status report to the court in two weeks.

High Court will next hear the matter on August 23.

THE GOVERNMENT counsel, however, contended that the government has duly developed the resettlement colony for project-affected families by spending `70 crore.