The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Land compensation: complaints against petitioner to be probed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 17, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Land compensation: complaints against petitioner to be probed

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 16. The Government has received complaints that the petitioner from Atmakur in Kurnool district, K. Rangasai, whose land compensation case was cleared recently by the courts, had claimed higher compensation by inflating the number of trees on his land acquired by the Government.

Stating this in reply to a question by E. Pratap Reddy (Congress) in the Assembly on Thursday, the Major Irrigation Minister, P. Lakshmaiah, said they had asked the Vigilance Commissioner to visit Atmakur to ascertain the facts.

Payment after report

He said the Government would release the remaining compensation to the petitioner only after receiving the Vigilance Commissioner' s report. This would be subject to clarifications by the Additional Advocate-General on the apex court's judgment. The payment fixed earlier was Rs 122.60 per tree.

The Minister said Dr Rangasai had obtained a decree from the court for attachment of the MRO office and the forest rest-house at the place for non-payment of compensation for the lands taken over by the Government. The amount mentioned in the decree was paid partially out of the budgetary provision. If funds were not available, drawl would be made from the Contingency Fund of the State to pay the remainder, he said.

The Government was now contemplating changing the norms governing land acquisition and compensation based on practical problems encountered so far.

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