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Andhra HC stalls Jagan Reddy’s three capital plan till September 21
The High Court also ordered the government to pay the amount due to the farmers as annuity by Saturday.
The Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday extended status quo on continuing Amaravati as the state capital till September 21, thereby halting the plan of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to shift the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam and judicial capital to Kurnool.
A three-member bench of the state high court comprising chief justice J K Maheshwar, justice M Satyanarayana Murthy and justice A V Sesha Sai, acting on a batch of petitions filed by the farmers of Amaravati, said there would be stay on the implementation of two legislations passed by the state legislature on the repeal of AP Capital Regional Development Authority (APCRDA) and formation of three capitals till further hearing on September 21.
The Jagan government has no chance to move the Supreme Court as the latter on Wednesday refused to interfere in the high court’s status quo orders.
This is the third time that the high court had stalled the plan of the state government on formation of three capitals. The status quo was first ordered on August 4 till August 14, which was later extended till August 27. Now, it has been further extended till September 21.
About 15 senior advocates, mostly from Delhi, have been appearing for the nearly 70 petitioners challenging the Jagan government’s decision to create three capitals and to abolish the APCRDA.
The high court said the government could file its counter on the objections raised by the petitioners before September 11 and the petitioners could present their version by September 17.
The division bench said it would like to hear the petitions in person, rather than in virtual mode, if it was convinced about the safety in view of the Covid-19 pandemic situation. “We shall take a call on holding the court physically or virtually a week before the next hearing on September 21,”
Meanwhile, farmers of Amaravati filed a separate petition in the high court questioning the delay in annuity for their lands surrendered to the state government for construction of capital in 2015.
According to the agreement signed with the APCRDA in 2015, each farmer has to be paid yearly amount of Rs 30,000 per acre for drylands to Rs 50,000 per acre for wetlands for a period of 10 years. Besides, landless poor who were working as agriculture labourer in the surrendered lands have to be paid Rs 2,500 per month.
“The amount has to be paid in June. Though the government has issued orders last month itself, the money has not been paid till now,” a farmer Idupulapati Seetharamaiah told the court.
On Wednesday, a group of farmers tried to lay siege to APCRDA office in Vijayawada demanding payment of annuity, but they were arrested by the police.
The high court ordered the government to pay the amount due to the farmers within the next two days.
Soon after the court judgement, state minister for municipal administration and urban development Botsa Satyanarayana said the government could not pay the annuity due to technical reasons. “We shall credit the amount to the accounts of farmers immediately,” he said.
