Tension prevailed for several hours at the villages falling under the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) near Zaheerabad in Sangareddy on Wednesday when Industries Minister K. T. Rama Rao came there to lay foundation stone for a defence manufacturing unit on about 500 acres.
According to reports reaching here, police resorted to lathi-charge to control farmers at Gangwar when they protested and damaged a police vehicle. A woman got injured in the melee and was shifted to hospital.
Several protesters were taken into custody and shifted to different police stations. According to sources, at Jarasangam alone, about 100 farmers were taken into custody.
Farmers were arrested when they tried to meet Mr. Rama Rao at his meeting venue.
Police took all the 17 villages under control and farmers were not allowed to even go to their farms. Shops were forcibly closed to avoid crowds.
“Almost all the villages were under strict police control in view of Mr. Rama Rao’s visit to lay stone for VEM Technologies. However, there would not have been any problem had they addressed the issues raised by farmers before,” Ramachander from Jarasangam said.
About 1,200 villagers were taken into custody and cases were registered against 30 persons. Heated arguments between the police and journalists were also witnessed when the latter tried to record the agitation by farmers.
