THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.9638 of 2002 DATED: 14.09.2009 Between: D.Madhusudana Reddy. …Petitioner and The District Collector, Nellore District, And others. …Respondents. THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.9638 of 2002 ORDER: The petitioner is a resident of Ankulapatur Village of Chillakuru Mandal in Nellore District. It is the case of the petitioner that when the lands in their Village were sought to be converted into prawn and shrimp ponds, he filed W.P.No.26652 of 2000 for a direction to respondents not to allow the same. The said writ petition was allowed on 26.07.2001 directing the respondents not to allow any person to carry on the activities of shrimp culture/prawn culture/aqua culture without obtaining prior permission from the competent authority. The petitioner now alleges that in spite of the said direction, respondent Nos.1 to 3 have not taken any action, and on the other hand, respondent Nos.4 to 6, who are not parties to the earlier writ petition, have started aqua culture operations in Acs.20.00 of land in survey No.1282 of the said Village. Aggrieved by the inaction of respondent Nos.1 to 3 in taking action against respondent Nos.4 to 6, the present writ petition is filed seeking a direction to respondent Nos.1 to 3 not to allow anybody including respondent Nos.4 to 6 to dig ponds for the purpose of prawn culture and to close them if they are already dug and not to permit any prawn culture in those lands by introducing prawn seeds in Acs.20.00 of Cooperative Joint Farming Society land situated in survey No.1282 of Ankulapature Village. A Division Bench of this Court in Madireddy Padma Rambabu v District Forest Officer, Kakinada[1] decided similar cases and directed the Revenue Authorities not to permit the conversion of agricultural land for the purpose of fish culture/prawn culture/shrimp culture, and also directed to remove all the illegally dug prawn culture tanks. Therefore, this writ petition is disposed of, directing respondent Nos.1 to 3 to inspect the area, conduct enquiry and take appropriate action against respondent Nos.4 to 6 after issuing notice to them. It is made clear that if respondent Nos.4 to 6 have already approached the Aquaculture Authority, Chennai, or have already obtained permission for conversion of land as prawn culture tank from such Authority, the same shall have to be taken into consideration by respondent Nos.1 to 3. The enquiry may be completed and appropriate orders may be passed within a period of eight (8) weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The writ petition, with the above observations and directions, is accordingly disposed of. No costs. ____________ (V.V.S.RAO, J) 14.09.2009 vs [1] 2002(1) ALD 728 (DB)