Gummadidala Rythu Sangam members firm on stalling Pyaranagar dump yard project
The farmers are worried that the proposed dump yard will pollute the environment and groundwater in the mandal
Sangareddy: The Grama Rythu Sangham Gummadidala, set up to fight on farmers’ issues some three-and-half decades ago, has decided to make all-out efforts to fight against the proposed Pyaranagar dump yard.
The farmers of Gummadidala mandal are among the major suppliers of vegetables to various major markets in Hyderabad. The farmers, who cultivate vegetables on 6,000 acres, send 15 to 20 tonnes of vegetables to Bowenpally, Shapurnagar, Kukatpally, and Moosapet markets apart from meeting the needs of locals.
The Rythu Sangam was formed in 1990 when three fertilizer dealers cheated farmers by storing loads of fertilizer and black marketing them at higher prices. About 400 farmers had joined hands and staged massive protests making agriculture officials raid these dealers and seize the fertilizer stocks.
After the success of their united effort, the farmers built their building besides registering it as a farmers’ organisation. The farmers of Gummadidala, Anantharam, and Mabapur are members of the association.
Speaking to Telangana Today, Maddula Bal Reddy, founder-member of the Sangam, said the farmers were worried that the dump yard would pollute the environment and groundwater in the mandal.
He said many farmers may quit cultivation in the area if they failed to get the desired yield after the Pyaranagar dump yard was opened. The Sangam would leave no stone unturned to make the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) shift the project to another location, he said.
Most of the farmers in Pyaranagar and Nallavalli, the villages nearest to the proposed dump yard, are vegetable farmers. These farmers fear that they will lose their livelihood once GHMC starts dumping waste here.
