Seventy-one-year-old P. Ayyakannu , president, Desiya Thennindia Nadigal Inaippu Vivasayigal Sangam, a Tiruchi-based farmers’ welfare organisation, is a relentless campaigner. An advocate-turned-farmer, Mr. Ayyakannu has been leading a series of agitations, some novel and others outlandish in forms, to draw the attention of the government to the “plight of farming community” over the past decade or so. Over the past week, he has been leading an agitation by farmers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. In a telephonic interview with S. Ganesan from New Delhi, he explains his demands. Excerpts.
You have been leading a series of agitations in recent years. What are your demands now?
The plight of farmers of Tamil Nadu has long been neglected. The BJP, in its election manifesto, promised to double farmers’ income. But farmers do not get remunerative price for their produce. Tamil Nadu is facing one of the worst droughts in over a century. A Central team toured the State to assess the drought situation and the State government sought ₹39,565 crore as drought relief from the National Disaster Response Fund. But, the Union government is yet to sanction funds. The severe drought and crop failure has resulted in death of several farmers in Tamil Nadu. Farmers are unable to repay their loans, but banks are auctioning jewels pledged by farmers. We want waiver of all crop loans sanctioned by nationalised banks. Since our agitations fell on deaf ears, we decided to go to New Delhi to draw the attention of the government. The agitation is also to press for linking of rivers.
The State government has already sanctioned relief to farmers. What is your expectation from the Centre?
The State government has only sanctioned input subsidy to farmers. Only the Centre can sanction compensation to the drought-hit farmers. Farmers should be sanctioned ₹25,000 an acre as compensation for paddy; ₹50,000 an acre for sugarcane, ₹1 lakh an acre for banana and other cash crops and ₹25,000 an acre for other rain fed crops. Farm labourers should be sanctioned ₹15,000 a month to compensate for the job loss.
Union Minister of State Pon. Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai have met you and urged you to withdraw your agitation. Your response?
Mr. Radhakrishnan promised to organise a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister. We met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday at the behest of Mr.Thambi Durai. Mr. Jaitley promised to consider our demands and announce a decision after consultations with officials. We have now converted our agitation into a silent protest. We will remain in New Delhi until the Centre announces a decision on our demands for sanction of drought relief and crop loan waiver. We will not leave till then.
What has been the response to your agitation and how is the morale of agitators?
We are into our eighth day of the agitation. We struggled initially for a couple of days as we had to sleep on the roadside, were exposed to extreme weather conditions and faced difficulty in even finding food. But soon, a lot of Tamil youths living here came to our support and are providing us food. Nearly 25 of our members suffered from diarrhoea and had to undergo treatment. We have sent back some of them home and currently we have about 84 members here. There has been overwhelming support and response to our agitation.
