Telangana govt to acquire Mucherla farmers' lands to build Pharma city

Farmers in Ranga Reddy district will be served notices by the Telangana government for land acquisition for the proposed Pharma City at Mucherla on the outskirts of the city. Earlier discussions with the farmers to hand over their lands have been unsuccessful.

The government has offered Rs 7.50 lakh for the farmers who demanded Rs 15 lakh an acre. The officials’ claim that it would be beneficial for farmers to agree to Rs 7.50 lakh per acre as the land rate has fallen to Rs 15.5 lakh per acre in the last year. However, the farmers are getting ready to launch an agitation against forcible land acquisition.

The Pharma City in Mucherla was planned by the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to house bulk drug manufacturing units along with a Pharma University on 11,000 acres and the first phase would need 2,000 acres of land to be acquired.

Ranga Reddy Joint Collector Rajat Kumar Saini held a meeting with farmers at the Kandukuru tahsildar’s office along with Revenue divisional officer Yadagiri Reddy and industries zonal officer Shyam Kumar to them to take Rs 7.5 lakh an acre. Stating that their villages would develop similar to Hyderabad once the Pharma City comes up, the officials also promised jobs for their families in the pharma units.

However, the farmers responded that they were not against the Pharma City but demanded Rs 15 lakh per acre compensation. Mr Saini then made a final offer of Rs 8.50 lakh per acre if the farmers arrived at a consensus and approached the government as soon as possible.