Apex court on Friday may hear the AP govt's challenge of an HC order that halted construction of houses for the poor in Amaravati's R5 Zone.
Buildings under construction in Amaravati. (Creative Commons)
The Supreme Court is likely to hear on Friday, 11 August, the Andhra Pradesh government’s Special Leave Petition (SLP), challenging a high court order that stopped the construction of affordable housing for the poor in the newly-created R5 Zone in Amaravati.
On 3 August, a three-judge high court bench of Justice DVSS Somayajulu, Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy, and Justice Ravi Nath Tilhar had ruled that further construction in the R5 Zone would not be proper or justifiable under the existing circumstances.
The ruling came after the YSRCP government decided to construct more than 50,000 houses for the poor under its affordable housing scheme.
On 24 July, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the project that envisaged 50,793 houses at Krishnayapalem Layout in the Guntur district at a cost of ₹1,830 crore. The plan was to construct the houses on 1,400 acres spread over 25 layouts.
He declared that “Amaravati is for all” as the beneficiaries of the plots belonged to Vijayawada and Guntur districts.
The local farmers have been opposing the allotment of plots to outsiders by creating a new housing category zone. The new zone was created by amending the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA)’s master plan.
The farmers had participated in the previous TDP government’s land-pooling scheme to develop Amaravati as the state’s new greenfield capital.
The Amaravati farmers approached the courts against the government’s decision. The case reached the Supreme Court which, in May, permitted the state government to distribute pattas — land revenue records or the record of rights — to the beneficiaries, subject to the outcome of the final verdict.
The Jagan government went a step ahead. Besides distributing the pattas it also launched the construction works, which the farmers challenged in the high court.
The high court order referred to a clause in the pattas, that said “further action will be taken in accordance with final orders pending before the High Court/Supreme Court (condition 10).” The government, however, distributed the plots and began planning the construction of houses.
The high court said that an enormous amount of public money was proposed to be expended in the R5 Zone, even as writs and SLPs were still under the consideration of the courts.
“This court cannot be a mute spectator if public monies are spent and later they cannot be recouped. This is public money,” the interim stay order said.
R5, a new housing zone for the poor, was recently carved out by the YSRCP government. It includes parts of other zones, including a non-polluting industry zone, town centre zone, educational zone, business park zone, etc, of the ambitious single capital Amaravati proposed by the TDP government.
The APCRDA in October last issued a notification to incorporate R5 — Affordable/EWS Housing — Zone along with the zoning regulations under the residential land use zone in the detailed master plan of the Capital City Amaravati.
As much as 900.97 acres were proposed to change land uses from U1 (Reserved Zone), C5 (Regional Centre Zone) 13 (Non-polluting Industry Zone, C4 (Town Centre Zone), S2 (Educational Zone), I1 (Business Park Zone and C3 (Neighbourhood Centre Zone) to R5 (Affordable/EWS Housing Zone).
The original Amaravati Capital Region master plan had four types of residential zones: R1 (Village Planning Zone), R2 (Low-density Housing), R3 (Low to Medium-density Housing), and R4 (High-density Zone).
“We don’t understand the intention of the government. The earlier government had already earmarked at least 1,700 acres at several places in the capital region to allot land for the local poor. Also, at least 5,000 TIDCO houses were built to be allotted to the poor who might migrate to Amaravati while developing the capital city,” Kasa Appa Rao of the Amaravati farmers’ Joint Action Council told South First.
“Now, the present government wants to change the master plan and create an entirely new zone to allot land and houses for the poor from outside. As per the original master plan, an electronics city was planned that would ensure around 3.5 lakh jobs was to come up in the area now earmarked as R5 Zone,” he added.
Another farmer said the APCRDA Act mandated that changes to the master plan could be made only with the consultation and consent of the farmers who had participated in the land-pooling scheme.
“We have not taken any monetary benefit in exchange for the land we have given up under the land pooling scheme. For 4,500-odd square yards of land, we gave to the government, we only get back around 1,500 square yards of residential and commercial space,” another farmer said.
“With a sense of belonging, and considering the state’s stressed financial condition after the bifurcation, we supported the government and gave up our lands in the larger interest of having a grand capital. Now, look at our fate,” he rued.
Addressing a public meeting after laying the foundation stone and unveiling a pylon, Chief Minister Jagan on 24 July described the event as the victory over the evil that created obstacles in the distribution of house site pattas by moving the Supreme Court.
“The day will remain special and have a permanent chapter in the history of Andhra Pradesh as the poor have achieved social justice after a three-year-long legal battle,” he said.
“TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and organisations with his backing, have filed 18 petitions in the high court and five petitions in Supreme Court with the aid of his foster son Pawan Kalyan and friendly media opposing the distribution of house site pattas,” Jagan said.
The TDP and its friendly media wanted NRIs to settle in the Amaravati region by opposing the construction of houses for the poor, he said, adding that they wanted the poor to remain poor forever.
“The most disgusting thing is that they went to the apex court unabashedly claiming that distribution of house site pattas in Amaravati would endanger the demographic balance. What is worse is that they took it as their heroism. We have never seen such moral degradation and dirty politics,” he said.
The chief minister said the government would shell out ₹1,829.57 crore for the project, out of which ₹1,371.41 crore would be used for constructing the houses and developing infrastructure facilities like roads, electricity and drinking water would require ₹384.42 crore.
May 01, 2024
May 01, 2024
May 01, 2024
May 01, 2024
Apr 30, 2024
Apr 28, 2024
