Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court issued contempt notices to Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and Municipal Administration Principal Secretary T.K. Sreedevi over failure to act on a court order related to the Indiramma scheme.
Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Renuka Yara were hearing a contempt plea filed after state authorities allegedly failed to take action on a representation seeking extension of the Indiramma Atmiya Bharosa Scheme to municipal areas. The scheme, notified under G.O. No. 18 dated January 10, 2024, is currently intended for landless agricultural labourers in rural areas.
The petitioner, through earlier public interest litigation, had requested that the Indiramma scheme be extended to similarly placed persons residing in small towns and urban limits. The High Court had disposed of the PIL with a direction to the petitioner to make a formal representation to the Chief Secretary and the Municipal Administration Principal Secretary. It had also instructed both officials to take a decision within four weeks of receipt of the representation and inform the petitioner accordingly. The bench had clarified that it was not expressing any view on the applicability of the scheme to urban areas.
Following alleged inaction by the two departments, the petitioner approached the court again with a contempt plea, claiming the representation had been submitted but no response was received within the stipulated period.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Chikkudu Prabhakar argued that the inaction amounted to a direct violation of the court’s direction. Taking note of the allegation, the bench sought responses from both top officials and posted the matter to July 29 for further hearing.
