Pharma hub will pollute Manjeera, deprive livelihood of farmers: Harish Rao

Farmers who interacted with the BRS leaders vowed to sacrifice their lives if government forced them to hand over their land.

Dappur: Former Minster T Harish Rao said the proposed pharma hub in the district would pollute the Manjeera River and deprive farmers of livelihood in Dappur, Vaddy, and Malgi villages. As the State government had decided to acquire 2,003 acres of land in these three villages for a pharma hub, BRS leaders led by Harish Rao visited the villages on Thursday to express their solidarity with farmers in their fight against the government. Rao also examined fertile agricultural lands, which were identified for acquisition.

Addressing farmers of these three villages at Dappur, he said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was turning into a real estate broker to sell the 15,000 acres of land acquired earlier by the BRS government to set up the Pharma City near Hyderabad. He said the 15,000 acres of land had all the infrastructure required to set up a Pharma City.

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However, Revanth Reddy had decided to acquire additional land in Sangareddy and Vikarabad districts by selling the land that the previous government had acquired at Mucherla. Asking Revanth Reddy to return the land in Mucherla to farmers if he did not want to set up a Pharma City there, Harish Rao said the BRS would wage a serious battle against the government if they touched land in Nyalkal.

The BRS would fight for justice to save the lands by filing cases in courts and the National Green Tribunal. Since 85 per cent of these lands were cultivable, the NGT would not allow them to set up a pharma hub there, he said, adding that the pharma hub would pollute river Manjeera since the place was located close to the river banks.

Farmers who interacted with the BRS leaders vowed to sacrifice their lives if government forced them to hand over their land.

MLAs K Manik Rao, Chintha Prabhakar, MLC Dr V Yadava Reddy and others were present.