Amaravati: HC grants farmers time to submit petitions till Monday

Amaravati: The Division Bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday granted time for the farmers to submit their petitions to the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) till Monday after they filed a writ petition seeking more time for submitting the petitions against the shifting of capital from Amaravati.

The Division Bench posted the matter for further hearing to Monday. Senior advocate Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar submitted to the court that the farmers were not given reasonable time to submit their petitions to the CRDA thus depriving them an opportunity to vent their woes.

He appealed to the court to give more time to the farmers to submit the petitions. The farmers were given time till Friday evening to submit their petition to the CRDA which would go through them and submit the content to the high power committee for taking a decision on the shifting of capital from Amaravati.

Responding to the farmers' plea, the Division bench comprising Justice AV Sesha Sai and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy issued orders allowing the farmers to submit their petitions till 2 pm on Monday. The division bench also stated that the farmers could submit their objections in writing, or to the CRDA website, or email.

The public interest litigation which was filed seeking more time for the farmers for filing their objections, also appealed to the court to restrain the High Power Committee (HPC) from submitting its report to the government till they filed their objections.

Advocate Ravindra Kumar, who is also a Rajya Sabha member said that the Cabinet could not take a decision without the report from the High Power Committee on grievances submitted by the farmers to the CRDA.