God's lands hits dams in Andhra

Andhra Pradesh government is in a fix as work has come to a grinding halt on a dozen major and minor irrigation projects following a stay issued by the AP High Court. The court had stayed the acquisition of land belonging to the temples under the control of endowments department two years ago. The court had stated: “Pending further orders, there shall be stay of all further proceedings, in relation to the acquisition of land belonging to temples all over the state, at whatever stage they are and any deviation in this regard would per se be treated as contempt of court.” Originally, the court had stayed acquisition of temple land for the Indiramma housing scheme. This has resulted in stoppage of work pertaining to irrigation projects. The projects affected due to stay include Indirasagar (Polavaram), Pulichintala, Gundlakamma reservoir, Thotapalli barrage, Jawahar Nettampadu, Koilsagar and Kalwakurthi lift irrigation schemes. The advocate-general C.V. Mohan Reddy twice made submissions before the Chief Justice to take up hearing on the miscellaneous petitions filed by the government urging the court to vacate the stay. It will take up the issue on February 5.