The Telangana government on Friday withdrew the controversial proposal of land acquisition for the pharma city project at Lagacharla and Polepally villages of Dudyal block in Vikarabad district, following massive protests from the villagers in the last three weeks.
A notification to this effect was released by Vikarabad district collector Prateek Jain. The notification said the government has withdrawn the total acquisition of 71.31 acres of assigned land in the Polepally village and another 632.26 acres of land from the neighbouring Lagacharla village.
The proposed Pharma City, planned to be built in the villages of Hakeempet, Lagacharla, and Polepally, received strong resistance from the villagers, who were apprehensive that the project will take away their fertile lands and affect their livelihoods.
The protests took a violent turn on November 11, when irate villagers resisted an attempt by the district authorities to conduct a public hearing at Lagacharla. Some villagers tried to manhandle the district collector, who managed to escape, but they hurled stones at his vehicle and attacked other officials.
Following the incident, police swooped on the village and detained more than 20 people, including senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader and former lawmaker Patnam Narender Reddy, who was charged with engineering the attack on the district collector. He has since been in judicial custody.
{{/usCountry}}Following the incident, police swooped on the village and detained more than 20 people, including senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader and former lawmaker Patnam Narender Reddy, who was charged with engineering the attack on the district collector. He has since been in judicial custody.
{{/usCountry}}The attack on the district officials and the arrests made by police triggered an outrage across the state, as the farmers went to New Delhi and lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission, which sent a fact-finding team to Lagacharla last week.
The National ST Commission also conducted an independent inquiry and found fault with police for targeting innocent members of the tribal community.
As the issue is snowballing into a major controversy, the (chief minister) Revanth Reddy government finally decided to withdraw the proposal to acquire land for the pharma city.