The rocky issue that has landed HYDRAA chief in trouble
The High Court directive which sought removal of A.V.Ranganath as the Commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) was spurred by
The High Court directive which sought removal of A.V.Ranganath as the Commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) was spurred by a batch of contempt petitions alleging violation of the court orders with regard to a land parcel in Lothkunta village of Medchal Malkajgiri district. The land close to Ammuguda, extending to 40 acres beside a railway line, was in the possession of a renowned builder who had won a long drawn battle against the government. HYDRAA, acting upon a complaint about destruction of hillocks by the Society to Save Rocks, entered the land and cleared it, before fencing it off.
This was despite an earlier undertaking to the High Court that HYDRAA officers would not interfere with the property of the petitioner in Lothkunta village. Ranganath claimed that HYDRAA forces had not entered the land of the petitioner at Lothkunta village, but only the government land which was located in the overlapping territory between Trimulgherry and Alwal. The contested land was stated by the petitioner to be in survey numbers 1 & 2 of Lothkunta village, which Mr.Ranganath claimed is 3 km from the land secured by HYDRAA.
He said the geo coordinates of the land parcel matched with GLR 243 (General Land Register number) denoting government land allocated to Cantonment. Further, he said there are no survey numbers 1 & 2 in Lothkunta village. Representatives of the Society to Save Rocks, which initially flagged rock blasting in the land, mentioned three sign boards indicating that it was A1 Defence land, which only further complicates the matter. Key evidence produced by the petitioner during the previous case was a land acquisition order purportedly by the Railways, which Mr.Ranganath calls fabricated.
While the issue could have been settled through an appeal to the High Court’s division bench, the operation by HYDRAA resulted in the current contempt petition. “In clearing the land, we only tried to implement the rule of law in letter and spirit. Going forward, we will take appropriate legal recourse,” Mr.Ranganath said subsequent to the news about High Court’s direction for his removal as HYDRAA chief.
The BriefWire