Even as the farmers are seeking compensation for crop loss they had suffered due to monsoon failure, a team visited the drought-hit areas of the district on Saturday.
Led by Dheeraj Kumar, Managing Director, TWAD Board, the team visited farms in 13 drought-hit villages including Karunkulam, Kasavankundru, Pillaiyarnaththam, Marthandampatti, Chinthalakkarai and Pooasanur.
Collector M. Ravikumar, Minister for Information Kadambur C. Raju, Thoothukudi MP Jayasingh Thiyagaraj Nattarji, MLAs Uma Maheshwari of Vilaathikulam and Sundararajan of Ottapidaaram accompanied the inspection team.
When the team visited Kasavankundru near Kovilpatti, farmer Narayanasamy, who has suffered hefty loss after cultivating black gram in his field due to monsoon failure, appealed to the Minister to urge his Cabinet colleagues not to demean the deaths of the farmers, “who could not repay the bulky loans they had availed for their farming operations but suffered heavy loss due to monsoon failure.”
Mr. Raju replied that the ministers had never disgraced the deaths of the farmers as they had fully understood the agonising experiences of the agriculturists during monsoon failure.
“They never said anything that would disrespect the farming community. Their intention was not to encourage suicides, which cannot be accepted in any society. So we’ll never say anything that would disrespect the farming community,” Mr. Raju said.
The team members visited vast stretches of fields now bearing withered black gram, chilli and green gram crops. Mr. Dheeraj Kumar chaired a meeting at the Collectorate after the inspection and exhorted the officials to ensure adequate supply of drinking water to the residents and identify the areas where borewells could be sunk for augmenting drinking water supply.
