THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA W.P. No. 10789 of 2008 Oral order: The petitioners, who are Ward Members of Cheemalapalli Gram Panchayat, have ﬁled this writ petition aggrieved by the inaction of the 1st respondent, namely the District Collector, Visakhapatnam, in passing orders on the representation dated 07.05.2008 made by them against the orders dated 14.04.2008, passed by the 2nd respondent, namely the Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer, Narsipatnam, directing the 3rd respondent, namely the Tahsildar, Athuthapuram, to supervise the formation of road and safeguard the interest of the ryots as suggested by the Irrigation Department. The petitioners state that the land in Sy. No.107 of Cheemapapalli village, which is a Gorja Poramboke, is being used as Kalava (Canal), feeder channel to Ooracheruvu, for irrigating an ayacut of 100 acres, and that there are about 300 palm trees on both sides running all along the channel, which protect the lands from being flooded. That the real estate dealers, who are having lands in Sy. Nos. 115 and 124 are trying to form a road through the land in an extent of Ac. 50 cents in Sy. No. 107, which falls under the Kalava, to beneﬁt the lands of the real estate dealers. The petitioners state that the Gram Panchayat without obtaining consent of the Grama Sabha, has passed an irregular resolution for formation of road. On the strength of the said resolution, the Sarpanch inﬂuenced the oﬃcials of the Irrigation Department and the 3rd respondent-Tahsildar, and obtained a report stating that there is no necessity to keep the canal, that it is not objectionable for formation of road on the left bank of the canal, and basing on the said report, got an order passed by the 2nd respondent-Revenue Divisional Oﬃcer, approving the formation of the road in the land in Sy. No. 107 of Cheemalapalli for public purpose as per the measurements suggested without detrimental to the ﬂow of the water through the canal. It is the grievance of the petitioners that they made representation dated 07.05.2008 to the 1st respondent- District Collector, requesting him to take appropriate action and stop the 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents from laying any road, and as no action thereon had been taken, the petitioner filed the present writ petition. The respondents did not ﬁle any counter. However, the learned Government Pleader produced letter addressed by the 3rd respondent to the 2nd respondent, wherein he submitted that the site was jointly inspected by him along with the Deputy Executive Engineer and Assistant Engineer of Irrigation Sub-Division, Yelamanchili on 19.03.2008, and reported the following factual position: 1. The Gorja Poramboke is a leading channel to Vura Tank running adjacent to the village of Cheemalapalli. 2. The Gorja is found with standing palmyrah topes on both sides and both margins of the Gorja is encroached by local ryots with cattle sheds etc. 3. There is no speciﬁc traces of leading channel about ½ K.M. up stream of the Gorja, however, the local runoﬀ from ½ Sq.Km. is expected to pass through the Gorja. For which a maximum section of 5.00 Mts x 1.50 Mts with standard banks on both sides i.e. 1.20 Mts and 3.00 Mts is suﬃcient. The width of the Gorja as per F.M.B. Sketch of the survey numbers under reference is 92 links i.e. 18.50 Mts. However, the width required including spoil banks on both sides for formation of canal is 18.40 Mts. Reporting so, he concluded that if the Gorja Poramboke is improved to standards by utilizing the left bank as road by public, it may not be objectionable. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader for Revenue. Since it is the case of the petitioners that most of the villagers are dependant on the water ﬂowing through the canal for cultivating their land, and that the palm trees standing on the banks of the canal, are standing as protection to their lands against ﬂoods, and considering the fact that it is the speciﬁc case of the petitioners that the Sarpanch of the village colluded with the real estate dealers, and to beneﬁt them at the peril of the villagers, got passed an irregular resolution in the Gram Panchayat for formation of the road on the canal bank by cutting the standing palm trees, and also got a false report from the Irrigation Department and the Tahsildar in a manner favouring the laying of the road, referred to above, on which the 2nd respondent heavily relied for approving the laying of road on the canal bank, I am of the considered opinion that it would not be proper to place reliance on the said report, and direct the respondents to consider the application made by the petitioners for non-laying of the road, in the light of the said report. Hence, I deem it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition with the following directions: The 1st respondent-District Collector, Visakhapatnam, is directed to get the site and canal inspected by an oﬃcer of the rank of Superintending Engineer of the Irrigation Department, and ascertain as to whether laying of the road on the canal bank would be beneﬁcial to the general public, particularly the villagers who are said to be using the water ﬂowing from the channel for irrigating their lands, and whether the laying of road would aﬀect the free ﬂow of water from the channel to the ayacut and also also require felling of the standing palm trees, which are said to be protecting the lands of the villagers from being inundated during ﬂoods, and basing on the report to be submitted by him, he shall re-consider the whole issue and decide as to whether laying of road on the canal bank should be permitted or not, and pass appropriate accordingly on the representation of the petitioners. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of. No costs. ________________ N.V. RAMANA, J. Dated: 16th July, 2008. KSR