Vemulaghat (Medak), July 30: Most of the men assembled at the Gandhi chowk of Vemulaghat village have a fractured hand or an inflamed thigh and other such wounds to show as proof of police action on them last Sunday when they rallied from the village in an attempt to protest on the Karimnagar highway against land acquisition.

As the men described "the brutality of the baton-charge on a democratic protest", a middle-aged woman said she was not able to squat to relieve herself after being caned by the police.

Last Sunday marked the 50th day of protests by the village in Medak district against what they say will be forceful acquisition of their homes and farmland by the Telangana government of K. Chandrashekar Rao for the construction of Mallanna Sagar, a reservoir of 50 TMC (thousand million cubic) feet capacity.

Over two years into his government and after uninterrupted victories in byelections and civic polls, Rao is facing his first major resistance and that too from his core constituency - the farmers.

The project requires 19,000 acres and will affect a population of about 30,000 in 14 villages of Medak district that would all submerge.

Estimated at a cost of Rs 9,400 crore, the project would, according to officials, irrigate over 10 lakh acres in the three districts of Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad and supply water to Hyderabad.

Unlike the reservoirs built by damming rivers, Mallanna Sagar could be compared to a colossal tub built at a height to store lifted waters from Godavari, flowing in the adjacent Karimnagar district.

Medak is the home turf of the chief minister and his Assembly constituency Gajwel is right beside the submergence area. His 60-acre farmhouse is a few kilometres from the project and protest site.

"KCR would be a major beneficiary while we would be the major sufferers. As a chief minister claiming to be working in the interest of his people, why doesn't he construct the reservoir over his land? Even geographically, the area around his farmhouse is on a higher elevation than ours to facilitate water flow in the canals. It is wrong to take our fertile land with good water supply giving us 2-3 crops a year," says Mohammed Hayathuddin, owner of 18 acres.

At the panchayat office, about a dozen village women, faces withered and garlands of plastic flowers around their necks, are on a relay hunger strike into its 56th day.

"No official has come to us to consult or even inform us on the project till now. It is clear the government doesn't want to go by the law," says Ranga Reddy, a farmer.

For all the publicity the government has given to the Mallanna Sagar as a "saviour" of Telangana farmers, the official project document - Detailed Project Report - has not been made public yet.

"DPR is in place but we don't want to reveal it yet," said an irrigation department official. "If required, the land would be taken by coercion."

Setting aside the Land Acquisition Act, the government started acquiring land -village by village - with Government Order No. 123 it issued last July "for land procurement from willing owners for public purposes". The land law is valid across the country, with states having the freedom only to better the compensation offered in the central law.

At nearby Etigadda Kistapur, the tehsildar of Thoguta Mandal, Deshya Naik, is busy collecting consent forms. Till last week, Kistapur was protesting but the officer claims "they have fallen in line now". "We have received consent for 1,100 out of 1,600 acres of patta lands here. Once I am done here my next focus would be Vemulaghat," Naik tells The Telegraph.

A compensation of Rs 6 lakh anacre (less than the market value in many places) and a promise of a house has been offered. But for many, it is the fear of losing rights over sada bainama (transfer of land title executed on a white paper which is popular in rural Telangana but has no legal sanctity) properties that weakened their opposition.

On Wednesday, Harish Rao said Pallepahad, another resistance village, also gave in.

But Vemulaghat, the biggest of the affected villages and one that has multi-crop land, says it won't part with its land at any cost. "Let them force us out," says Ranga Reddy, alleging they are getting threat calls from local TRS leaders.