Medak: Farmers oppose land acquisition for RRR, demand land for land

Farmers in erstwhile Medak district protest the land acquisition for the Regional Ring Road (RRR), demanding compensation based on market value or land-for-land. They urge the government to announce compensation before proceeding.

Sangareddy: With the State government beginning the land acquisition process for the Regional Ring Road (RRR) that will pass through the erstwhile Medak district, farmers are sternly opposing the move.

When survey teams arrived at villages here to earmark the land, farmers staged protests and forced the teams to return. The villagers are demanding the government to carry out the survey only after declaring the compensation to be given to them. The farmers were demanding market value as compensation for their land or land for land. Out of the 333 km proposed for the RRR, 110 km of the road, nearly 33 per cent, is passing through the erstwhile Medak district. Out of the 158 km of the northern part, a majority -110 km – goes through 58 villages in Medak district.

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The road will start at Nagulapally in Sangareddy district and end at Peerlapally in Jagadevpur mandal of Siddipet district. The officials have commenced a survey in Narsapur division and Gajwel division where survey department officials were finding it difficult to carry out their work amid strong opposition from farmers.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Itikyala Bhaskar, a farmer from Chebarthi village in Markook mandal of Siddipet district, said that an acre of land was being sold at Rs.70 lakh to Rs.2 crore in the area depending on the location. However, the government was not making any announcement on the compensation they wanted to extend to the displaced farmers under the project. Out of 4,500 acres needed for the RRR in Medak, the surveying department had earmarked 2,790 acres so far. The villagers from the Gajwel revenue division met R&B Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy in April this year demanding justice for them. Though Venkat Reddy assured them of getting good compensation, the government had failed to come up with a concrete announcement so far, prompting the farmers to continue their protests blocking the survey.

Medak Collector Rahul Raj invited the farmers to his office recently to convince them on the land acquisition. Though the Collector assured them of getting good compensation, the farmers were seeking the announcement before the land was acquired. The RRR will connect NH-65, NH-161, NH-44, NH-163, Rajiv Rahadhari, and Bengaluru bypass near Sangareddy among other important roads.

Another farmer Niranjan Goud said they would not be able to buy the same area of land anywhere in the district if the government paid a meagre compensation. He said land acquisition would push the farmers into crisis because they knew nothing but farming.