Hyderabad: Expressing wonder at the attitude of the authorities in allowing the transportation of sand excavated illegally from Handri River in Kurnool district through agriculture lands, the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday sought to know the status of the enquiry into allegations against the role of Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister’s son in the sand mining.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akhter was dealing with a petition filed by Bazari and 11 other villagers from SH Yerragudi Mannekunta villages of Krishnagiri mandal and Gorantla village of Kodurnur mandal of the district alleging that the administrative machinery has failed to control the illegal mining of sand.
Reminding its last week’s direction to find out truth behind the allegation of villagers about the alleged role of K. Shyam Babu, the son of K.E. Krishna Murthy, the deputy chief minister of AP, in illegal sand quarrying in the river Handri, the bench sought to know the status from the counsel for the AP government.
The counsel submitted that when deputy director of mines and geology has made an enquiry none of the villagers have come forward to spoke about the role of the deputy chief minister’s son.
When the bench pointed out why the authorities not acted promptly when the villagers have complained about role of Shyam Babu, the counsel replied that the villagers have complained to the Chief Minister’s office and it was forwarded to the deputy director through the district collector.
The bench said, “Your officers didn’t care the court orders. It appears that they also didn’t even care the orders of CM’s office. The collector’s office also just forwarded the complaints to mines department.”
The counsel for the petitioners complained to the court that the sand was transporting through the agricultural lands of some farmers of the villages by laying a track, but the authorities have not taken action despite the complaints from the villagers.
Expressing wonder at apathy of officers, the bench sought to what the officers were doing when agricultural lands are being destroyed The bench told the petitioner’s advocate to file affidavit along with photographs of the track.
