Food cooked outside as part of farmers' protests in Telangana against the Mallanna Sagar dam project
At a village in Telangana's Medak, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao's home district, there was a cookout and a community lunch on Tuesday but it was no celebration.
For people cooking rice and rasam outdoors in large containers, it was a show of anger, a message that they will soon be left homeless and without land.
Farmers of 14 villages are protesting against the Mallanna Sagar irrigation project, which will leave around 22,000 acres of land submerged. They allege that their land is being acquired by force.
"We want our land. We don't want money or any project," said Mahboob Ali, sitting under the blazing sun along with hundreds of villagers.
"I was born here and I will die here. I don't want to die an orphan in a strange new environment. I will go nowhere else,'' declared an elderly woman, Chilakalamma.
Farmers of 14 villages likely to be submerged by dam project are protesting
The state government has offered a rehabilitation package which, villagers say, is peanuts compared to the amount they would get under a new 2013 law on acquiring farm land for government projects according to the value of the land.
"They are forcing us to give our consent. They say if you agree you will get six lakh rupees for an acre plus additional money for trees, borewells and pipelines. If you don't agree, they say they will anyway take your land and you will get only 1.8 lakh rupees for an acre under the 2013 law,'' says Parshuram, a farmer.
For the Chief Minister, it is a political challenge as he represents the constituency in the state assembly.
The Mallanna Sagar dam, estimated to cost 9,800 crores, aims to irrigate 10 to 12 lakh acres in Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad districts that are chronically drought-prone.
Yesterday, clashes broke out in the area and the police had to step in after angry villagers attacked the home of a local official trying to get their consent.
"There were some 500 policemen. It was a war-like situation," said a villager Prashant.
As part of their protest, the villagers have vowed to boycott Telangana's founding day celebrations.