Public protest forces Congress Govt to stop work on ethanol factory in Nirmal
The protest by residents of Dilawarpur mandal headquarters, Gundampalli Mukundapur, Samundarpalli villages, was intensified on Tuesday with a day-long rasta-roko in Dilawarpur mandal centre
Nirmal: Residents of four villagers in Nirmal on Wednesday forced the State government to listen to them and issue orders stopping work on an upcoming ethanol factory, against they were protesting for nearly a year now.
The protest by residents of Dilawarpur mandal headquarters, Gundampalli Mukundapur, Samundarpalli villages, was intensified on Tuesday with a day-long rasta-roko in Dilawarpur mandal centre, with people led by a joint action committee blocking traffic and demanding that the factory be shifted to another location far from their villages.
However, the protest, which continued late into the day, turned violent around 8 pm when RDO Ratna Kalyani reached the spot and held consultations with the agitators. They however, refused to relent, insisting for intervention of the District Collector and reinstating of a teacher who was suspended for extending solidarity to their movement.
Some angry protesters tried to stop the vehicle of the RDO when she wanted to leave the spot around 9.30 pm. Ratna Kalyani fainted when her blood pressure dropped. She was immediately shifted to hospital on the vehicle of Superintendent of Police Dr Janaki Sharmila, who was monitoring security at the spot. Meanwhile, unidentified persons damaged the vehicle of Ratna Kalyani and some persons threw fire into vehicle, setting it on fire. Police managed to extinguish the fire soon and restored traffic on the road around 11 pm.
As many as 23 farmers from the four villages were booked on charges of causing inconvenience to the public by staging a sit-in on the national highway, vandalising the vehicle of the RDO, detaining the official and obstructing her duties.
The protests resumed on Wednesday morning, with the villagers staging a sit-in on the National Highway 61 at Dilawarpur mandal centre, threatening to kill themselves. They carried bottles of pesticides, threatening to consume the same if the government did not take steps to shift the factory. They also demanded withdrawal of the cases booked against the 23 farmers. However, when officials tried to talk to them and stop the protest, the protestors turned angry and began pelting stones at the officials and the police. Women and children brandishing bottles of pesticides forced the officials to leave the spot.
With the protest showing no signs of abating, Nirmal Collector Abhilasha Abhinav ordered the management of the ethanol factory to stop work on the factory. The Collector said a report on the protest was submitted to the Chief Minister’s Office, following which orders asking the management to halt the work was issued, she said.
Following this, the villagers withdrew their protest. A delegation of villagers, who held consultations with the Collector, told the media that the protest was temporarily called off. They would not stage protests till the government permanently shifted the factory, they said.
The Collector said the factory project was kept in abeyance and construction work was halted as per instructions of the government.
A Hyderabad-based private organisation is behind the ethanol producing unit on the outskirts of Gundamapalli village costing Rs.100 crore. It had bought around 60 acres of land to set up the factory and secured permission from the Telangana State Pollution Control Board and other government agencies for the unit and had begun construction of the factory despite the year-long protests by the villagers.
