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The main purpose of this blog is to inform the world about a historic struggle being waged by farmers belonging to 3 villages in Mahabubnagar district in the South-Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The state government has forcibly acquired about 1000 acres of land belonging to poor farmers of Polepally, Mudireddy Pally and Gundla Gadda Thanda. All these farmers are illiterate and belong to Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Backward Castes. In short they were the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable sections of our society.

The state government officials lied and threatened these hapless farmers and paid them a meagre amount of about Rs 16,000 (Approx $375) per acre. Many farmers realised only half of this amount as they had to pay bribes at every stage to get this compensation.

What is shocking is that after acquisition, the lands were handed over to APIIC (Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation), which inturn allotted this land for a Pharma SEZ and started selling these very lands at Rs. 12,00,000 ( Approx. $28500).

Farmers who started protesting this injustice were implicated in false cases and arrested. The agitation has now entered its fourth year. From a time where no political party bothered about them, Polepally SEZ victims have now succeeded in capturing the attention of all major political parties in the state. The woes of these farmers are now being featured in all major regional and national media.

Polepally SEZ is a classic example of who is “sacrificing” for whose “development”.

It is the responsibility of people like us to extend our solidarity to the spirited fightback of Polepally farmers.