Hyderabad Pharma City project to pose electoral challenge to Telangana Rashtra Samithi?

An incident that occurred recently at Medipally, one of the villages in Ibrahimpatnam constituency to be directly affected by the project, points to this fact.
Image used for representational purpose only.
Image used for representational purpose only.

HYDERABAD: With elections around the corner, Hyderabad Pharma City project of Telangana government, which has already received Environmental Clearance, is going to pose a serious challenge to former Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs of Ibrahimpatnam and Maheshwaram assembly constituencies, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy and Teegala Krishna Reddy respectively.

An incident that occurred recently at Medipally, one of the villages in Ibrahimpatnam constituency to be directly affected by the project, points to this fact.Last Wednesday, when Manchireddy Kishan Reddy was attending a TRS party meeting at Medipally, farmers started protesting on the issue of land acquisition for the project and compensation to be paid. The protest turned violent when the farmers started throwing chairs, leading to an abrupt end to the meeting.

The project is to come up on 19,333 acres of land across three mandals — Yacharam, Kandukur and Kadthal, which fall in Ibrahimpatnam, Maheshwaram and Kalwakurthy Assembly constituencies respectively.

With the leaders of TRS party being at helm as MLAs in two of these constituencies — Ibrahimpatnam and Maheshwaram  — they are expected to face ire of unhappy farmers in the upcoming Assembly elections. Speaking to Express, Pache Basha, Sarpanch of Medipally village in Yacharam mandal, where public hearing for the project was conducted last year, said, “In Yacharam mandal many farmers are unhappy with pharma city project. There are a range of issues. Partial information provided by government officials to the villagers regarding the project, concerns of pollution from pharmaceutical companies, snatching away of assigned lands to the marginal communities, irregular records of ‘patta’ lands of those who gave away their lands for the project and poor compensation, the issues are many. Not more than 20 to 30 percent of people will vote for the TRS.”  

However, TRS leaders are confident that project will not have any impact on their electoral prospects.
Manchireddy Kishan Reddy said, “There are only a few people who have raised issues regarding land acquired from them. A majority of the people are rather in support of the development the pharma city project will lead to in the region.”

Teegala Krishna Reddy, meanwhile, said, “The price paid for lands acquired for the project is higher than the market value. Government has already paid about `50 crore of compensation. It is only a handful of people who are opposing the project and it does not pose any challenge electorally.”

Former MLA and senior Congress leader, Malreddy Ranga Reddy said, “Yacharam mandal has about 40,000 votes and most of them will not vote for TRS. Even in other mandals people are against the project because they know that the air and water pollution caused by pharma companies will not be limited to just one mandal. In our campaign, we will raise the issue in Ibrahimpatnam as well as Maheshwaram constituencies.”

Scrap Pharma City project, demand activists

In a round table conference held on Wednesday at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram on the proposed Hyderabad Pharma City project, farmers, NGOs and environmental activists demanded scrapping of the project with concerns raised over its environmental impact and regarding land acquisition for the project. D Narasimha Reddy of the collective Citizens Against Pollution, demanded that environmental clearance given to the project has to be withdrawn, citing reason that the entire process of approvals was “sans people participation, consent and prior knowledge”. Participants of the conference said that villages in Medak, Nalgonda, Rangareddy and Mahabubnagar were already facing water contamination and giving away close to 20,000 acres of land for the pharma city project has the potential to destroy local natural resources.

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