HYDERABAD: The Sircilla collector and his two subordinates were sentenced to three months’ jail by the Telangana high court on Tuesday for wilful violation of the court’s order in a contempt case.
Justice M S Ramachandra Rao said they were guilty of trying to hoodwink the court on compensating displaced farmers. The court convicted collector D Krishna Bhaskar, joint collector Yasmin Basha and revenue divisional officer (RDO) N Srinivas Rao in the contempt case and also imposed a penalty of Rs 2,000.
The judge also directed the convicted officials to pay Rs 10,000 towards legal costs to each of the 11 farmers who moved the court against the errant officials.
Upon request from the state, the judge suspended his conviction order to allow the convicted officials to pursue their legal remedies.
The judge pronounced this order after hearing Ummenthala Mutha Reddy and 10 other farmers from Ananthagiri village in Ellankuntha mandal of Rajanna Sircilla district whose land and houses were taken over by the state for constructing Ananthagiri reservoir as part of its Kaleswaram irrigation project. The petitioners said they were dispossessed from their fields without awarding compensation and rehabilitation as laid down under the land acquisition Act, 2013.
Upon completion of the construction of the reservoir, water was released from it resulting in the submergence of their fields and houses.
What irked the judge was the way the officials tried to mislead the court by contending that the land and houses of the petitioners were not yet submerged. The judge went through the record of the case, the photos furnished by the petitioners and concluded that the provisions of the land acquisition were not properly implemented in the case despite earlier orders from the court asking them to do so, and none of the petitioners were compensated for the agricultural land they lost. They received some amounts only for the houses and some of the petitioners took it under protest.
“The special government pleader appearing for the additional advocate general is unable to show any document proving that Rehabilitation and Resettlement Awards under Section 31 of the land acquisition Act for the agricultural lands of the petitioners which were acquired were passed or that any payment in that regard was made to any of the petitioners,” the Judge said.
The judge also directed the state to record adverse entries in the service records of the three convicted officials by citing the conviction in the current contempt case.