Visakhapatnam: The land at Harbour Park in Pandurangapuram does not belong to government and it is not legal for the government to lease 13.08 acres of land to a private company for 99 years, pointed out AP High Court and Supreme Court advocates Vadapalli Sivananda and Janapamala Venkata Kondalarayudu.

Speaking to the media here on Monday, the advocates mentioned that without taking permission from the landowners the government signed an MoU with a multinational company and the advocates made it clear that the land belongs to private persons. A number of cases were pending in courts on this issue, they informed.

There are 10 owners and their heirs have ownership of the land, they explained. “Without paying any compensation to them, the government allotted the land to a company,” they said.

The advocates said that a legal battle in the High Court was pending against the government for unilaterally allocating the land to a private company without consulting them and without paying any compensation to them.

They informed that four writ petitions have been filed in the High Court and a special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court on the issue and the government should file a counterclaim for it.

Advocate Sivananda mentioned that if the government wants to take the land after paying compensation to the victims, the landowners were ready to handover the property to the government.

High Court advocate Y Krishna, advocates Y Pantulu, G Kameswara Rao and victims participated in the meeting.