Government officials have a duty to address illegal encroachments on public water bodies as mandated by constitutional rights and public interest.

ORDER :

E.V. Venugopal, J.

This Writ Petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is filed seeking the following relief :

“...pleased to issue Writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondent No.2 to 5 in not taking against the encroachments in Sy.No.615, 616 and 633 of Palle cheruvu, Budda Reddy Pally Village, Itkyal Mandal, Jogulamba Gadwal District, which comes under FTL and Buffer Zone despite representation dated 27.08.2024 as illegal, arbitrary, highhanded, violative of principles of natural justice and being violative of article 14 and 300-A of Constitution of India and consequently to direct the Respondents take action against the encroachments fn Sy.No.615, 616 and 633 of Palle cheruvu, Budda Reddy Pally Village, Itkikal Mandal, Jogulamba Gadwal District made in accordance with law, and take remedial measures for protection and restoration of the said water body and pass...”

2. Heard Sri T.Bala Mohan Reddy, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Sri L.Ravinder, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Revenue, for respondent Nos.1 to 4 and Sri Dharavath Ravi, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Irrigation and CAD, for respondent No.5 and perused the record.

3. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner herein is the ex-sarpanch of Buddareddypally Village and he is eking his livelihood by doing cultivation. The only water source of their village is Palle Cheruvu. The said water body is spread over approximately 65 acres in Sy.Nos.615, 616 and 633. Due to large-scale unauthorized encroachments and indiscriminate release and diversion of water, the taken has suffered considerable reduction in capacity, severely impacting the irrigation supply to dependent agricultural lands. The earlier elected body of Grampanchayat, despite the availability of alternate government land, has illegally undertaken the construction of a Grampanchayat building within the FTL area of Cheruvu. This construction was undertaken using government funds. As a result of this construction, the existing cartway within the tank has been raised to prevent water from entering the building area, thereby shrinking the water body by approximately 8 to 10 acres.

4. In the communication dated 23.12.2019, vide Letter No. A/451/2019 issued by the Tahsildar, Itkyal Mandal to the Assistant Director, Survey and Land Records, Jogulamba Gadwal District, acknowledges that the survey was wrongly conducted in Sy.No.616 instead of Sy.No.615, and also admits that a portion of the Gram Panchayat Building lies within the FTL zone. A request was made to depute DIO for re-survey; however, no corrective action has been taken. Aggrieved by the said construction of gram panchayat building in FTL, the petitioner filed W.P.No.2926 of 2020. The said writ petition was closed by this Hon'ble Court by order dated 29.07.2021 observing: "on perusing the affidavit filed by the respondent No.7, we are of the opinion that a satisfactory explanation has been offered by the Department relating to the construction of the Gram Panchayat building in the village in question and the same does not infringe either the FTL area or the buffer zone. on the ground that no encroachment was proved in respect of the specific building".

5. In-fact the reports and survey conducted would clearly show that one pillar of the said building is in FTL and Buffer zone. Since the orders are already passed by this Hon'ble court in respect of the panchayat building, the petitioner is not re-agitating the same issue in the present