CM Revanth Reddy’s Pharma Village plans face stiff opposition in his own constituency

Farmers from Kodangal have for the last few weeks been opposing the State govt’s move to acquire their lands and allocate them to pharmaceutical companies to set up a pharma village.

Vikarabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy‘s move to scrap the much awaited Pharma City and go for clusters of what he calls ‘pharma villages’ is facing stiff opposition, including from his own constituency of Kodangal, where the protest is so fierce that a woman farmer threatened on Wednesday to take her life if her land was taken away for the pharma village.

Farmers from Kodangal have for the last few weeks been opposing the State government’s move to acquire their lands and allocate them to pharmaceutical companies to set up a pharma village. The protest on Wednesday saw the farmers declaring that they would rather die than give up their lands. Tension prevailed during the protest in front of the Dudyala MRO office when a woman farmer from Polepally village, Turpu Rajamma, holding a bottle of pesticide, threatened to take her life if her land was taken away.

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“I will die, but I will not give up my land,” she declared while slowly moving to drink the pesticide. Alerted by the situation, other farmers quickly intervened and snatched the pesticide bottle from her. The group then continued to protest, reiterating their stance that they would rather die than surrender their lands for the project.

Farmers from Lekacherla, Pulicherla and Polepally raised slogans against the Congress and demanded the government to shelve the plans to set up a pharma village in the neighbourhood. They outrightly opposed the pharma village and declared that they would not part with their lands for the same. The majority of the lands in Kodangal were fertile lands and it was not wise on the government’s part to use such lands for setting up a pharma village, the farmers said, pointing out that they had been depending on the land for their livelihood for generations and now the State government wanted it to be handed over to pharma companies. They also pointed out that water and air pollution would increase in villages and people would face severe health issues if the project came up.

“We don’t want the pharma village. Our lands should be ours. If agricultural land is given to pharma companies, it will affect our health and environment,”former Polepally MPTC Purra Sreemannarayana said.

The State government is planning to acquire 1274.25 acres of government and patta lands from villages of Hakimpet, Polepalli, and Lakacharla in Dudyal mandal for the proposed pharma village. Worried over the State government’s move to acquire their lands, a group of farmers from Daultabad mandal had recently met BRS working president KT Rama Rao at Telangana Bhavan and sought his support. The farmers said nearly 3,000 acres of agricultural land in the villages of Hakimpet, Polepalli, and Lakacharla in Dudyal mandal were at risk of being taken from them. They also said the Chief Minister’s brother Tirupathi Reddy was pressurising them to give up their lands. They described the government’s actions as a conspiracy to grab land worth lakhs of crores, ignoring the fact that these farm lands were their primary source of livelihood.