Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday stayed the demolition of houses until Nov. 15 and issued an interim order after villagers from Ippatam village of Tadepalli mandal in Guntur district petitioned the court.
The villagers complained that their houses and compound walls built some 30-40 years ago were being demolished in the guise of road widening and prayed for a court order to stop this.
A single judge bench headed by Justice Ravinath Tilhari heard the petition and served notices on the principal secretary, the municipal administration and the municipal commissioner of Mangalagiri, the Tadepalli municipal corporation and to the Ippatam gram panchayat secretary.
The court asked them to halt action until Nov. 21, based on a notice served on the villagers earlier.
Petitioners’ counsel Chidambaram submitted to the court that the petitioners built their houses in their own lands several years ago. “Without anyone asking for any developmental work, the officials proposed to widen the road.”
He submitted that when the petitioners refused to accept the proposal for road widening, they were blamed for encroachment of the road and served with notices, he said.
If the road widening works are to be taken up, the authorities are supposed to take up land acquisition and pay compensation to the villagers, he said, and argued that the issue of encroachment was raised by the officials with a mal-intention to avoid payment of the compensation.
He said that there were also political interests behind the present development initiatives in the village.
