Kerala-based India’s top kidswear manufacturer and exporter Kitex Garments is again facing heat as farmers of Shayampet Haveli in Geesugonda mandal of Warangal district in Telangana are resisting the acquisition of their agricultural lands for the company’s expansion.

As per media reports, the Kitex project was one of the two units which commenced work on the 1,200 acres allotted by the State government for the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park spread over Geesugonda and Sangem mandals.

The manufacturing giant was allotted 187 acres, but it urged the government to sanction another 13.29 acres to realign its compound wall to make it Vastu compliant. Otherwise, the alignment of the wall crisscrossed patta lands of farmers in its present form.

In response to the request of the company, a team of Revenue officials tried to survey the lands on Saturday but they met stiff resistance from farmers who were aggrieved that the government did not concede the agreement already entered into with them five years ago when their holdings were sought to be acquired for the park.

The reports claim that the farmers were of the view that the government paid them a compensation of only Rs. 10 lakh per acre while the market price was Rs. 50 lakh per acre.

Also, there was no response from the government to the agreement to allot 100 sq yds per acre surrendered, for house sites and a job in the park for each family.

The farmers were sore that the government was taking from them their fertile lands which were fit for the cultivation of three crops a year with good irrigation facilities.

It has been said that in anticipation of trouble again, the revenue team completed the survey with the help of police reinforcements but farmers confronted surveyors and police while women who carried pesticide boxes threatened to commit suicide. Reports add that they were shifted to the police station to pave way for the completion of the survey.