Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has directed the Telangana State Pollution Control Board to submit a status report before it on the action initiated against various private cotton ginning and seed processing units, running without any statutory permission in and around Gadwal town and mandal.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and justice Sanjay Kumar was dealing with a plea by Gadwal municipal chairperson G. Padmavathi and three others, questioning the action of the authorities in allowing the industries to discharge effluents into the Jamulamma reservoir which is a drinking water source for the area.

The Human Rights Commission had directed these industries to take corrective steps, but they failed to comply with the orders. The bench granted two weeks’ time to the Board to place the status report.

HC upholds AP’s decision on ayacut

The Hyderabad High Court upheld the decision of the undivided AP government to create an additional ayacut of 15,000 acres by excavating the Gajapathinagaram Branch Canal (GBC) on the right main canal of Thotapally Barrage in Vizianagaram district. A bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar dismissed a petition by Gadde Babu Rao of the Telugu Desam challenging the decision of the AP government which had decided to create additional ayacut.

The petitioner submitted that increasing ayacut without increasing the storage capacity and without altering the design of Thotapally Barrage would affect Gurla, Merakamudidam, Cheepurupalli and Garividi, the tail-end mandals in the district.

He contended that the government could not take up extension works of the GBC without CWC approval. He urged the court to suspend the GOs issued in 2006 and 2008 for extension of the GBC.
The government submitted that the GBC was only an extension of the right main canal of Thotapally project, which was already cleared by CWC. After perusing the records, the bench found that the government had taken a decision based on a report submitted by the chief engineer to allocate irrigation and drinking water to drought prone mandals of the district.

The bench said that the court cannot substitute the expert opinion and the petitioner had not brought to the notice of the court the chief engineer’s report and had challenged it.

PIL moved against GHMC placing bins

A city advocate Y. Balaji has moved a PIL before the Hyderabad High Court stating challenging the civic body’s action in placing garbage bins in front of commercial complexes and residential buildings demanding payment of property tax arrears.

He told the court that the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had stated that the bins would not be removed unless the defaulters paid the pending tax.

He contended that it was illegal and there was no such provision under the GHMC Act and urged the court to direct the government to act against the GHMC commissioner and others for following an illegal procedure to collect tax and exposing the public to a health hazard.