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The Supreme Court on Wednesday reprimanded the Maharashtra government over compensation owed to landowners who were allotted unnotified reserve forest land.
The top court, comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, said it would stop the freebies provided by the state if the compensation due is not paid by August 28, according to a report by the Bar and Tribunals Association.
“If you (Maharashtra) do not pay unless we allow, we will not allow all such freebies in the state. We will stop the ladki, bahu, behan yojana… Tomorrow (August 15) is a holiday, otherwise if we had called the chief secretary, it would have been resolved. But we do not want to burden the state exchequer. We are forced to make these observations. You have thousands of crores of public money (for freebies), but you cannot compensate someone who was deprived of land without due process,” Justice Gavai said during the hearing.
The court was dealing with a matter relating to compliance of its earlier order directing payment of compensatory afforestation cess by the state in connection with denotification of forest land in Pashan, Pune.
This is not the first time that SC has reprimanded the Maha government
Earlier on August 7, the Supreme Court had criticised the Maharashtra government’s recent budget under which various incentives worth Rs 96,000 crore were announced ahead of the state Assembly elections scheduled later this year.
The state government also announced the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, which proposes a monthly payment of Rs 1,500 to women between the ages of 21 and 65. “There is enough money for Laadli bahu (schemes) and everything else. All the money spent on freebies should be redirected to compensate for loss of land,” the court had said on August 7.
The Supreme Court’s observation came after the state government explained that it had not yet made the payment in question as the rates were yet to be determined. The court eventually gave the state till August 9 to file an affidavit and warned that failure to do so would result in the state’s chief secretary being brought before the court.
First published: August 14, 2024 | 19:05 IS
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