Adilabad: Return our lands, villagers demand Cement Corporation of India

Adilabad: Villagers of Belluri and four other villages of Adilabad municipality staged hunger strike near CCI in Adilabad on Friday, demanding both State and Central governments to return the agricultural lands, which they had given to Cement Corporation of India (CCI) two and half decades ago.

Speaking to the media, the village elders said that National Mining Association conducted a survey in 1979 and identified plenty of limestone reserves in the area and CCI came forward to establish their companies in the village lands. 'At that time, the CCI promised the farmers of providing jobs to their family members. The company also promised to adopt and to develop Belluri and another four villages, after taking about 799 acres of agricultural land from the farmers.'

The CCI started production in 1984 and provided employment directly about to 3,000 workers and indirectly to about 10,000 people in Adilabad town. In 1996 due to simplified economic policy, the company suffered loss and the workers were forced to take voluntary retirement.

Since then, the farmers of these five villages have been facing financial problems without jobs for the past 25 years, the village elders lamented. They demanded the State and Central governments to return their agriculture lands and implement Rythu Bandhu and others welfare schemes to them also.