Jagan Government Resorting to Contempt of CourtLegal Experts warn that Andhra Pradesh Government may well find itself in legal tangle after it has issued a GO merging four villages of the CRDA with the Tadepalli and Mangalagiri municipalities. They are Navuluru, Errabalem, Bethapudi, and Penumaka. Right now, the CRDA Repeal Bill pending in the Council.

The Government can not proceed unilaterally to take away these villages from CRDA. Moreover, the issue is currently in the courts and a status-quo has to be maintained as per the court order. This GO, political experts say amounts to the contempt of the court.

Amaravati farmers allege that the Government also infringed routine procedures in doing so. “Meetings were to be held in every village before the Government proceeding. The meetings were scheduled initially but were canceled due to the court’s order. But the Government had released this GO unilaterally,” they allege.

Government sources say that the Chief Minister had taken this decision after a group of farmers headed by Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy met him and requested him to exempt them from the Land Acquisition. However, Political Experts say the law does not allow a meeting with the Chief Minister to override the standard procedures.