'Our Lives or Our Land': Farmers defy HMDA RRR project

Hyderabad: Tensions escalated at the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) office in Swarnajayanti Complex, Ameerpet, as Regional Ring Road (RRR) deportees from various districts of Telangana staged a protest against the proposed alignment of the RRR on Monday.

Emotions ran high as one farmer sloganeered, “Even if I lose my life, I will not give the land to RRR”,  a sentiment echoed by many who carried signs and floral cards symbolizing their readiness to sacrifice everything for their cause. Holding ‘placards’ and floral tributes, the farmers vowed not to part with their fertile lands, which they say are being undervalued and forcibly acquired. Not satisfied with the reply from HMDA, many of them took to the road and blocked the traffic at Ameerpet centre, leading to traffic chaos. 

The protesters, primarily from agricultural backgrounds, argued that the current RRR alignment unnecessarily cuts through rich crop fields instead of utilizing alternative, less fertile zones that were identified in earlier surveys. They allege that the new route benefits real estate interests at the expense of farmers’ livelihoods.

The farmers are demanding, firstly, a revision of the RRR alignment to avoid fertile agricultural land; secondly, transparency in land valuation and acquisition compensation; lastly, a reversion to the previously surveyed alignment that spared crop fields.