Urging the Tamil Nadu farmers to call off their protest the state chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami met the farmers who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for the last 39 days, in New Delhi on Sunday.
The agitators are demanding a Rs. 40,000-crore drought relief package, farm loan waiver and setting up of the Cauvery Management Board by the centre. The Chief Minister told the farmers that he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday and submit a memorandum highlighting their plight.
Mr Palaniswami has already discussed the issue with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Mr Palaniswami, who arrived in the national capital on Saturday, will attend the NITI Aayog meeting along with Chief Ministers of other states. The protesting farmers have shaved their heads, halved their moustaches, held mice and snakes in their mouths, conducted mock funerals, flogged themselves and even carried skulls of other farmers who had committed suicide due to debt pressure as part of their protest.
Earlier the Madras High Court, had directed state government to expand its farm loan waiver scheme to include farmers who own land over five acres. However, there is no relief for those who have borrowed from nationalised banks. The state had sought Rs. 40,000 crore from the centre, which sanctioned only Rs. 4,000 crore. With 60 per cent deficit in rainfall, Tamil Nadu witnessed its worst drought in 140 years.
