Hyderabad:

At least 55 people in Telangana’s Vikarabad district were detained on Tuesday for allegedly attacking government officials during a protest against acquisition of land for a pharmaceutical project. The protest took place in Lagacharla village of Dudyala mandal, which falls under Kodangal assembly seat represented by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

Four officials – Kodangal Area Development Authority (KADA) chairman Venkat Reddy, Deputy Superintendent of Police Srinivas Reddy, Additional Collector Lingya Naik and Mandal Revenue Officer Vijay Kumar – sustained injuries after villagers attacked the officials with sticks and threw stones at them.

Inspector General of Police (Multi Zone II) V. Satyanarayana told news agency IANS that the attack on officials was “pre-planned” allegedly by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) youth wing leader B Suresh Raj, who is on the run.

Satyanarayana also said that police believe 100-110 people participated in the attack. “We will take stringent action against those who took part in the attack and those who instigated them,” he said.

The incident took place when a team of officials, led by Collector Prateek Jain, visited the village to seek the locals’ opinion on the proposed land acquisition for the pharma project.

Officials aware of the details said the government is trying to acquire 1,358 acres of land for the pharma project. Farmers, however, claimed the compensation offered is lower than market rates, and have expressed their apprehensions about losing their land and home.

Police said the Collector’s office had set up a camp on Monday on the outskirts of Lagacharla to seek public opinion when Raj approached the officials and urged them to visit the village instead for the discussion. As the collector and his team reached the spot, the villagers attacked them and raised slogans such as “collector go back”.

“Raj had people ready to attack the officers who showed up,” Satyanarayana said.

Meanwhile, the staffers at the Collector’s office staged a dharna against the attack, even as the official said he was not attacked by the villagers. Other government employees in the district boycotted their duties on Tuesday and employees in the rest of the state wore black badges, to protest against the attack.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Telangana minister Sridhar Babu said the state government has taken a serious view of the attack, which was planned by “political elements”. “There is a conspiracy to stop development in Telangana,” he said.

He also dismissed BRS working president K T Rama Rao’s allegation that the pharma project would benefit a relative of Chief Minister Reddy.