High Court paves way for Khammam collectorate; Telangana government relieved
The bench made it clear that the government has the power to exempt the constructions meant for providing basic infrastructure facilities to people from the “Social Impact Assessment”.
Published: 25th July 2018 04:03 AM | Last Updated: 25th July 2018 04:03 AM | A+A A-
HYDERABAD: In a relief to Telangana government, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in the PIL filed against the construction of new integrated Khammam district collectorate complex at V Venkatayapalem village in Raghunadhapalem mandal in the district. The bench made it clear that the government has the power to exempt the constructions meant for providing basic infrastructure facilities to people from the “Social Impact Assessment” under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice V Ramasubramanian was dismissing the PIL filed by M Vijaya Bhaskar, an advocate from Khammam, seeking directions to the state government not to shift the existing collectorate office in Khammam.
The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the government was going ahead with the above construction without complying with the “Social Impact Assessment” specified under Section 10 of Act 2013. If it was allowed then such exemption would be made applicable to other constructions as well, and the purpose of the Act would get defeated, he argued. After hearing the case, the bench said that there was nothing wrong with the decision of the government since the said construction was meant for creating infrastructure for the people, and dismissed the PIL.
