Farmers take out padayatra against Pharma City on outskirts of Hyderabad

Hundreds of farmers and residents of Yacharam and Kadthal mandals in Rangareddy district of Telangana took out a 15-kilometre padayatra against the proposed Hyderabad Pharma City (HPC) project. The protest march started at Gandhi statue of Meerkhanpet and passed through Kurumide, Nanknagar, Thatiparthy and Medipally villages on Sunday. 

According to the activists, the project will affect around 20 villages as it requires to acquire over 19,000 acres of land across the three mandals, namely Yacharam, Kadthal and Kandukuru. The land acquisition is underway, as per the reports.

The farmer activists are alleging that the setting up of the Pharma City will pollute the agriculture sector and environment in the region. The farmers under the Pharma City Vyatireka Porata Committee (a group against the Pharma City) demanded that the government stop the forceful acquisition of lands and should not set up chemical factories in the cultivable lands.

Speaking to the local media, the farmers said, "Initially, they said they will only take assigned lands for the pharma companies. However, they took those assigned lands by threatening. They are saying that they will take the patta lands, whether we willingly giving it or not. What will happen to people of these 20 villages, what about their livelihoods? The government should first think about their safety and livelihood, then it can think about Pharma City. We are not going to allow the Pharma City to come up at any cost."

Saraswati Kavula, a farmers’ rights activist, speaking to TNM said, "The Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R and R) Act, 2013, rules have been violated by the government throughout the procedure. The farmers are demanding to stop land acquisition and pharma city, besides restoring the registration process for the farmers in the affected villages."

Incidentally, the government authorities have stopped registration of lands in that area to prevent farmers from selling it others. 

The activists also allege that environmental-wildlife ecology will be damaged if the Pharma City comes up. Over a dozen cases against the land acquisition for Pharma City are pending in the High Court of Telangana and several more farmers are getting ready to approach the HC, alleging the violations 

The farmers following the padayatra alleged that the government is trying to acquire lands from the farmers forcefully by threatening them, though it has earlier claimed that it will only set up it in the assigned lands.

Earlier in October 2020, the police had arrested activists from Yacharam mandal for staging a ‘rasta roko’ (road block) protest, obstructing local MLA Manchireddy Kishan Reddy from visiting Medipally village, one of the villages where the Pharma City is proposed.