Andhra Pradesh high court refuses to stay demolition of Praja Vedika

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh high court has refused to grant stay on the demolition of Praja Vedika. The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) was executing the demolition of Praja Vedika. The dismantling works that started on Tuesday night neared completion as APCRDA moved men and machinery in large numbers.
Meanwhile high drama took place on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday as one Poluri Srinivasa Rao moved high court with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) opposing the demolition of Praja Vedika. As he pressed for immediate hearing through a house motion given the urgency of the matter as dismantling works have already began.
The high court registrar referred the matter to the chief justice C Praveen Kumar who constituted a special bench with justice M Sitarama Murthy and Justice G Shyam Prasad to take up the hearing of the petition.
Krishnaiah, the counsel appeared for Srinivasa Rao argued that the Praja Vedika was built with Rs 8.9 crores of public money. He said by dismantling the structure all the money will go waste causing loss to exchequer. The decision to demolish Praja Vedika is arbitrary and taken in haste. In the government if one department found fault with the work done by other department, the objections are to be raised in a defined manner he said adding that the government should take a policy decision in this regard before dismantling the structure built with public money.
The advocate general, Subramanyam Sriram and additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy argued that the government is demolishing an illegal structure constructed in violation of constitution and also Supreme Court judgements. Sriram argued that the petitioner himself mentioned in his petition that it is an illegal structure on one hand and asking for stopping its demolition on the other. He referred to the reports of Lokayukta and executive engineer of CRDA who confirmed that the said structure is in violation of River Conversation Act and Environment Protection Act.
The high court bench also asked the petitioner that whether the construction is illegal or not. As the petitioner did not disputed that it was an illegal structure, the high court bench observed that if the building is not a legal structure then there is no public interest in the plea. However, the bench admitted the plea to recover the costs from former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and former municipal minister P Narayana and posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
The petitioner made chief secretary, principal secretaries of irrigation, municipal administration, roads and buildings, former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and municipal administration minister P Narayana as respondents. The state government also agreed to the petitioner’s plea to recover the losses arising out of demolishing Praja Vedika from Naidu and Narayana.