IN THE HIGHCOURT OF JUDICATURE : ANDHRA PRADESH AT

HYDERABAD

W.P. No. 1571 of 2006

Between

"DHIMSA" a Society registered under

A.P. Societies Registration Act, .00!

And Another ...Petitioners

-AND-

Government of A.P. rep. by its Prl. Secretary

to Govt, Industries & Commerce (Mines)

D partment, Secretariat, Hyderabad

A id Others

...Respondents

COUNTER AFFIDAVIT FILED BY RESPONDENT NO. 4

I, Smti. Sobhana Kamala Sudarsana Rao, W/o. Dr. S. Sudarsana Rao, age 46 years, Occupation - Indian Forest Service, R/o. Bangalore, do hereby state on oath as follows:

1. That I am working as Deputy Conservator of Forests (Central) in the office of Respondent No.4, as such I am well acquainted with the facts of the case and I am authorised to file this affidavit on behalf of Respondent No.4

2. That I have read the contents of the affidavit filed by the petitioner in the above writ petition and deny all the averments made therein, except that those which are specifically admitted by me herein after.

3. In reply to para 5, it is submitted that prior approval of the Central Government under Section 2 of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, is mandatory for diversion of forestland for non-forest purposes. It is also submitted that no proposal for diversion of 305.808 ha. forest land in favour of A.P. Mineral Development Corporation Limited, i.e. the 6th respondent in respect of the area in question, has been received by this respondent so far. As and when the proposal is received by this respondent, the same will be considered as per the provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and directions issued by Hon'ble Supreme Court from time to time in the similar case and accordingly, the decision will be taken on the merits/demerits of the proposal made available by the State Government. The other, allegation made by the petitioner is denied.

4. For the reasons stated above, the petitioner is not entitled for any relief sought for and the writ petition is liable to be dismissed.

It is, therefore, prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to dismiss the writ petition with costs.

Sworn and signed before me on

13th Day of March 2006 in

my presence.