Cuttack: The Orissa High Court (HC) Friday served notices to Sundargarh district collector, additional collector and the executive engineer of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) with regard to the notification issued for land acquisition for laying of Biramitrapur-Barkot section of National Highway (NH) no. 23 in 2015.
The HC served the notice while hearing a case filed by Jagannath Oram and Kamala Kundu. The petitioners had challenged the notification for land acquisition for the NH project.
The Central government had issued a notification for acquiring the landed properties of the petitioners at Gopapalli and Lungei mouza of Sundargarh district in 2015.
Opposing land acquisition, Oram and Kundu had filed a case in the HC. They informed the court that the Central government had not provided any compensation before acquiring the landed properties.
According to the petitioners, the authorities concerned had not conducted any gram sabha or public hearing for acquiring land for the NH project.
Moreover, the administration had not addressed the grievances of the villagers as per the Land Acquisition Act 2013, the petitioners informed the court.
The HC Friday pronounced a status quo on the landed properties of the petitioners. Advocate Shankar Prasad Pani is representing the petitioners in the HC.