No stay on merger of villages into Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation

Hyderabad: Justice Challa Kodandaram of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday refused to stay the GO issued by the TS government declaring six surrounding villages of the city as municipalities and merging them into the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

The judge was dealing with a petition by T. Vikram Reddy challenging the merger of Meerpet, Jillelaguda, Balapur, Jalpally, Kothapet and Pahadi Shareef villages into the GHMC by declaring them as municipalities.

TS stand sought on Transco man’s plea
A division bench, comprising Justice Reddy Kantha Rao and Justice B. Siva Sankara Rao, of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday sought the stand of TS government on an appeal by Kancharla Raghu, a superintendent engineer of the TSTransco, Warangal circle, questioning the decision of the government preventing him from participating in the public hearings conducted by TS Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Mr Raghu filed the appeal after a single judge declined to give any interim direction to the authorities to enable him to participate in the forthcoming public hearings. Mr Raghu is known as a power sector activist and has been a regular invitee by the authorities themselves for public hearings. The bench directed the state, its Transco and the Regulatory Commission to file their counters on the issue.

CBI court gets time to decide on plea
Justice Raja Elango of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the Special CBI Court of the city to decide within three months on the discharge petition filed by former IRS officer K.V. Brahmananda Reddy in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy illegal investments case.

The CBI charged Mr Reddy, who was the then special secretary in the investments and infrastructure department of undivided AP, of being instrumental in signing the concession agreement for land allotment to Vanpic on July 11, 2008.

Mr Reddy moved a plea before the High Court seeking quashing of the case saying that he was falsely implicated in the case by the CBI. He said that he did his job in accordance with administrative rules and implemented the decisions taken by the Cabinet.

Mr Reddy said that the CBI had not even produced a single piece of evidence to prove that he had personally benefited from the agreement.
 between Vanpic and the government.

He told the court that he had already moved the discharge petition before the CBI Court and there was a delay in hearing that petition. While granting Mr Reddy exemption from personal appearance before the CBI Court, the judge directed the trial court to take a decision on discharge petition within three months

Justice Elango also granted exemption from personal appearance to Nimmagadda Prasad, an industrialist and one of the accused in the case.