Farmers find solace at Hyderabad High Court

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has helped farmers of both Telugu sta-tes get decent compensation their lands acquired for public projects. In different cases throughout 2017, the court was tough on the governments, forcing them to alter orders and enhance compensation packages.

Scores of farmers and agricultural labourers and families affected by projects in both the states knock-ed at the doors of the High Court. They were aggrieved the governments taking away their lands without announcing resettlement and rehabilitation packages. Besides, they also failed to assess properly the land value while determining compensation.

The TS government faced a major setback in January when the HC declared that it should not purchase lands further under GO 123 of July 30, 2015, for construction of irr-igation projects. The GO was issued to purchase lands from farmers without reference to the Land Acquisiti-on Act 2013.        

The court made it clear that if the gover-nment wanted to purchase land voluntarily from the owners, the package should be better than the one prescribed in the 2013 Act. It was then that the government came out with GOs enhancing the rates and also prescribing the packages for farmers and artisans. Similarly, the AP government issued more than 600 notifications for land acquisition for irrigation and infra projects.

When the affected farmers and families moved the High Court, it forced the AP government to give an undertaking that it would not take away the lands without providing compensation and also without conducting the social impact assessment.