Hyderabad High Court asks state to pay farmers for loss
Crops destroyed in Jatara
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-19 07:22 GMT
Hyderabad: Making it clear that it was the responsibility of the state government to compensate local tribal farmers in Medaram of Warangal district in case their crops were damaged during the of Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara, the Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the Telangana government to give an undertaking for payment of compensation to local farmers.
A division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a contempt case by Mr Ch Jagannadha Rao, sarpanch of Urattum gram panchayat of Tadwai mandal, complaining of non-implementation of a court order by the authorities concerned with regard to payment of compensation for crops damaged during the Jatara.
The petitioner submitted that the Jatara, conducted every second year, saw lakhs of people gathering at Medaram and its surroundings where the Sammakka and Sarakka temple is located. He said that during the Jatara, tribals were deprived of land and they lost crops on 500 acre in the name of the festival and revenue officers were seeking their eviction.
The Bench stated that if the government didn’t want to pay the compensation, it would have to fence the entire area so that the devotees would use the land available adjacent to the temple, otherwise the government would need to acquire private land to conduct the Jatara and pay compensation to the farmers for the damage caused due to the festival. The bench adjourned the case for two weeks.
TS defends relieving staff:
The Telangana government on Friday defe-nded its action before the Hyderabad High Court in relieving over 1200 employees working in the Telangana Power Generation Cor-poration and Telang-ana State Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd (TSSPDCL) to AP.
Advocate general of Telangana, Mr K. Ramakrishna Reddy, arguing before a division Bench comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and A. Shankar Narayana, said that the employees had been relieved based on their nativity but not according to their place of birth. The Bench was dealing with a batch of petitions by the employees challenging their allocation to AP and also a petition by the TSSDPCL and the state government seeking to vacate an interim direction granted by a single judge to maintain status quo on allocation.
The Bench said that it would confine its hearing for granting of interim order with regard to payment of salaries to the relieved employees as they had been deprived of salaries since April 2015. The counsels appearing for the employees contended that nativity included place of birth and division of employees based on their place of birth was contrary to Article 15(1) of the Constitution. The Bench stated that it would pronounce its orders on Tuesday.