While withdrawing the notification issued for acquiring 1,358 acres for a pharma village at Hakeempet, Polepally, and Lagacharla in Vikarabad's Dudyal Mandal, the government said it would instead develop a textile park there.
Published Nov 30, 2024 | 9:48 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 30, 2024 | 11:00 PM
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the "farmers festival" in Mahabubnagar on Saturday. (X)
Close on the heels of withdrawing a notification to acquire land for a pharma village at Lagacharla village in Kodangal, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the government would establish an industrial park there, irrespective of the opposition.
He added that the land acquisition would affect some farmers, and it was necessary for development.
Taking serious exception to the BRS allegedly obstructing his attempts to acquire land for a pharma village by instigating farmers, the chief minister said that he wanted the youth of his constituency, Kodangal, to benefit from the project’s employment potential.
While withdrawing the notification issued for acquiring 1,358 acres for a pharma village at Hakeempet, Polepally, and Lagacharla in Vikarabad’s Dudyal Mandal, the government said it would instead develop a textile park there.
The chief minister was speaking at the “farmers festival,” a massive farmers’ convention at Mahabubnagar, organised as part of the first anniversary celebrations of the Congress rule in Telangana.
Launching a broadside against BRS leaders, Revanth Reddy said he was not afraid of the “animals masquerading as human beings”, since he had grown up at Kongareddypalli, a village in Nallamala forest.
“I grew up among wild animals. What would these ‘manava mrugalu‘ (animal men) do to me,” the chief minister asked.
He wondered what had motivated the BRS to incite villagers to attack government officials, including the Vikarabad collector.
“The poor Lambada tribesmen, trusting the BRS, attacked the officials and are now in jail. Who is responsible for their plight? Am I going to take away the land from the village? I felt it was my responsibility to serve the people of my district as they had been at the receiving end over the past 70 years,” Revanth Reddy said.
He lambasted the BRS for neglecting the Mahabubnagar district during its 10-year rule.
“KCR (K Chandrashekar Rao) keeps saying that as an MP from Telangana, he could get Telangana. But it was the people of Mahabubangar who had sent him to the Lok Sabha. Shouldn’t he show his gratitude? But he had spent ₹1.02 lakh crore on Kaleshwaram and made a lot of money on the sly,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said the BRS had never stood by the farmers. “It was always the Congress, at any point of time in history, that cared for them, whether in building infrastructure like major dams or waiving their loans or going to their rescue in times of distress,” he claimed.
“The Kaleshwaram Project that KCR had built collapsed within three years of its construction but the projects that Congress had built decades ago are still intact. They are a testament to the Congress’s commitment to farmers’ welfare,” the former Telangana PCC president said.
He said the Congress-implemented projects, and not Kaleshwaram, had helped the state produce 1.53 crore tonnes of paddy in the last year, a record in the entire country. The chief minister said it stood as a testimony to his government’s care for the farm sector.
“We have spent ₹53,000 crore for the welfare of farmers in the last year alone,” he said.
Revanth Reddy dared KCR and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to debate with him on contributions to farmers’ welfare. He said his government had created a record by waiving ₹21,000 crore crop loans of 25 lakh families in just one year.
The BRS leaders became jittery after Congress began paying ₹500 as a bonus for every quintal of fine-rice paddy procured. “The farmers are very happy as money is flowing into their accounts like never before,” he said.
The chief minister asked the people not to be misled by the BRS’s designs. “Naturally, a few farmers will be affected if land is acquired but no development can take place without land acquisition,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said he was ready to pay any amount as compensation. “You have a wonderful opportunity. Don’t fritter it away. I am your man in the chief minister’s chair. I want to spend ₹20,000 crore per year in the next five years for your welfare,” the chief minister said and added that he would show his gratitude to the people by completing all pending irrigation projects in the district.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that those who were left out under the ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver due to technical reasons were paid the amount on Saturday, 30 November. The state government credited ₹3,000 crore to the bank account of 3.2 lakh such farmers, he said.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
