Hyderabad: Farmers from Luxettipet, Modela, Suraram, Gullakota, Pothepalli and Itikyal villages staged a rasta roko on the Nizamabad-Jagdalpur NH at Suraram village on Sunday, March 10. The protest was held against the state government’s plan to acquire their lands for the proposed greenfield highway 63.
The farmers stated that acquiring lands for the purpose of development would snatch their daily means of livelihood, adding they would not repeat the mistake they made 15 years ago for the Sripada-Yellampalli project.
The Sripada-Yellampalli project, built at a cost of staggering Rs 5,400 crore by the previous BRS government, is an irrigation project located at Yellampalli village. It is the fourth largest project on the Godavari river in Telangana.
Due to the protest by farmers, traffic came to a standstill for almost half an hour. On information, police rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the agitating farmers.
On March 4, the protesting farmers submitted a representation to the district collector seeking the official’s intervention on the greenfield highway 63 project.
The state government plans to construct the highway on 1,433 acres across 35 villages from Modela village in Luxettipet to Mulkalla of Hajour mandal.
