Vikarabad farmers protest land acquisition for pharma village,‘attack’ collector

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed for a while in Lagcherla village in Dudyala mandal in Vikarabad district on Monday after farmers protested against land acquisition for a proposed ‘pharma village’ by the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC).

Dudyala is part of Kodangal Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

Collector Prateek Jain, Kodangal Area Development Authority (KADA) special officer Venkat Reddy, additional collector Linga Naik and sub collector Uma Shankar Prasad visited the outskirts of Dudyala to conduct a public hearing on setting up a pharma company in Lagcherla village.

The programme was also open to farmers and locals from Hakimpet, Polepally, Lagicherla, Dudyala, and other nearby villages.

The collector was allegedly attacked by locals

The proposed pharma village involved setting up pharmaceutical units in the area. The officials faced stiff opposition from the locals as the farmers declared they were against the acquisition of their lands and boycotted the public hearing at Dudyala.

Collector Prateek Jain and other officials went to Lagcherla village in an attempt to engage with and persuade the farmers. Soon, a group of locals including women and farmers raised slogans against them, shouting “Go back” and “Congress down down” slogans.

Nevertheless, the Collector and officials made an effort to communicate with the agitated villagers. The villagers, particularly the women, pushed and attacked the officials as they persisted in their treatment of the farmers.

Vehicles damaged with stones

The collector was surrounded by protesters but managed to board a vehicle and leave to his camp office sensing the trouble.

However, the crowd chased the officials’ vehicles with sticks, pelting them with stones and damaging the windows of the vehicles. Venkat Reddy was thrashed severely by the women and three vehicles were damaged in the attack. The police deployed heavy force and rescued the officials from the village.

The police also escorted the officials to safe locations in the cars besides resorting to lathi charge to quell the situation. To avoid any untoward incidents and to restore normalcy in the place, the police also deployed more force from Mahabubnagar and Narayanpet districts in Dudyala.

Upon receiving information about the incident, Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari spoke to Pratheek Jain over phone and took stock of the situation.

Vikarabad Collectorate officials stage protest

Vikarabad Collectorate officials demanded stern action against those who attacked collector Prateek Jain in Lagcherla village.

Condemning the attack, the officials staged a protest and locked down the collectorate’s premises on Monday.

“The villagers attacked the collector. Then, what about our situation now? We will stage a protest from Tuesday and we will not stop until the police arrest the culprits behind the attack,” the collectorate officials said.

Prateek Jain urges employees to call off agitation

Vikarabad district collector Prateek Jain urged the agitating collectorate officials to stop their protest condemning the attack on him at Legcherla village.

After the incident, the collector returned to his office and updated the officials about the incident that took place in the village when the team went to conduct a public hearing.

Prateek Jain said that a section of people at the hearing unnecessarily created a ruckus in the village which led to the attack on him. A thorough investigation will be done on the incident, the collector said and urged officials to call-off their strike.

No attacker will be spared: Vikarabad IGP

Meanwile, IGP multi zone-II V. Satyanarayana examined the situation hours after the Vikarabad rioters' attack on the collector.

He directed the officials to register cases on the rioters' based on the video evidence. Three FIRs have been registered by Bomraspet police, and 22 suspects have been identified based on video evidence, he said and added that additional security forces have since been deployed, and the situation is now under control.

"We will initiate stern action against the miscreants, who compelled the collector Pratheek Jain to visit the place. Special teams will be constituted to collect evidence through technical, special branch and other officials and take action against them, no matter who instigated this attack. Apart from that, we identified one Suresh from Hyderabad posing as a farmer and indulging in rioting. Apart from that, we will also identify all others through their mobile phone call data. Legal action will be taken against them as well," Satyanarayana said.