The High Court put the brakes on the proposed sale of government land in Guntur and Visakhapatnam under ‘Mission Build Andhra Pradesh’ by directing that the e-auction should be subject to its orders, and posted the matter for May 28 when the first lot of properties are likely to go under the hammer.
Hearing a PIL filed by Thota Suresh Babu of Guntur, Justices Rakesh Kumar and K. Suresh Reddy questioned the urgency in conducting the e-auction from May 28 to 30 when the lockdown is in force and whether the government was in such a precarious financial position to sell off its land parcels (six in Visakhapatnam and three in Guntur) to meet its requirements.
Representing the petitioner, N. Srinivasa Rao said the government was under the obligation to explain what forced it to sell its properties while acquiring land for constructing houses for economically weaker sections, and other projects.
He argued that selling government land for garnering funds for programmes such as Navaratnalu and ‘Nadu-Nedu’ was not legally tenable and suggested that the land in Visakhapatnam be used for the development of ‘capital city.’
The proposed sale is in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution and against Directive Principles of State Policy, he argued.
State defends stand
The court ordered Additional Advocate General P. Sudhakar Reddy to file a counter-affidavit by Thursday.
It may be noted that the government constituted the Mission Build AP for promoting infrastructure development and resource mobilisation and it has been entrusted to the National Building Construction Corporation.
Mr. Sudhakar Reddy claimed there was nothing unconstitutional about land sale and that several State governments and even the Centre have sold their properties as part of their economic policies. If every policy was interfered with, the State would suffer from a policy paralysis, he argued.
