HYDERABAD: The High Court has stayed further proceedings pursuant to the land acquisition notifications issued after the change in alignment of the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project at Kandlakoya village in Medchal mandal for two weeks.

The judge G. Raghu Ram also stayed the land acquisition proceedings near Uppal for the Musi beautification project. He was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by people affected by the two projects. The judge referred the matter to a Division Bench as the issues, including the environment angles, needed a serious consideration.

The petitioners, S. B. Kirloskar and others, levelled serious allegations against the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and its Chairman D. Sudheer Reddy who is made a respondent, along with another Congress leader Amabti Rambabu. The petitioners maintained that the ORR alignment had been altered 114 times to favour a few “powerful” persons. Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel S. Ramachandra Rao said that the HUDA was depriving the poor of their lands in the name of realignment. In his counter affidavit, the ORR Project Director, however, claimed that everything was as per law.

While disagreeing with the contention that a committee of six IAS officers was asked to look into the complaints, Justice Ram remarked that the public law did not recognise such committees. He felt that the counter affidavit was not forthcoming about serious issues raised by the petitioners.

In another batch of writ petitions, Dubba Narasimha Reddy of Uppal and others, challenged the proceedings initiated to acquire their land for Musi beautification project. Their counsel D. Prakash Reddy informed the court that hundreds of acres were being acquired, when the land on banks of Musi river was sufficient for setting up the sewage treatment plants. They complained that the authorities were not acting as per law.