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| Edited By: KV Ramana |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 04:54 AM IST
The plans of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to set up an special economic zone (SEZ) in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh seems to have been impacted by the growing aggression for separate Telangana state and the strategy of agitators of targeting polluting pharma companies.
The company, according to sources, is going slow on the SEZ it is planning to develop in Medak near Hyderabad. Medak, a part of Telangana, has many drug units and the Telangana activists have been alleging that the units were polluting the water bodies in the region.
Dr Reddy’s is also developing another SEZ in Vizag. While the Medak SEZ is meant for finished dosages, the Vizag SEZ is for active pharma ingredients.
“The work in Medak has slowed down,” a source tracking the project said. Though there is a talk about the pharma major evaluating the option of shifting the SEZ out of Telangana and locating it somewhere near the Vizag SEZ, there is no confirmation as yet.
“The work at Medak SEZ is definitely behind schedule,” a company spokesman confirmed without elaborating on the actual date of commercial operations at the SEZ. Dr Reddy’s has been planning an investment of about $200 million on both the SEZs.
Dr Reddy’s Medak SEZ is planned over 320 acres cutting into two villages - Melasangam and Lingampally. Though the Telangana brigade is yet to make any specific mention about the SEZ, the local activists have been enlisting several drug companies which are coming up on either agriculture land or the land given to the weaker sections through assignment.
The activists have been arguing that the drug companies in general have bought the assigned land or the land that was used for agriculture to develop pharma SEZs only to pollute the ground water and also the water bodies in the vicinity.
In fact, K Chandrasekhara Rao, the leader of TRS, the pro-Telangana party, is currently engaged in preparing a list of such polluting units, particularly in the pharma sector.
“We are preparing a comprehensive list and the details will be out soon. There are many units in Rangareddy and Medak districts in Telangana that are discharging toxics into the atmosphere and also the lakes and tanks of the locality. We will definitely target them and ensure that the pollutants are moved out,” a senior TRS leader said.
