An inquiry that was scheduled to be conducted at the Modakurichi Tahsildar Office on objection petitions over the Irugur (Coimbatore) – Devangonthi (Karnataka) Petroleum and Petroleum Product Pipeline (IDPL) project on Tuesday was postponed.
Farmers in the district were opposing the pipeline project that was proposed to pass through the farm lands and had organised various protests and formed “Federation of Farmers Affected by the IDPL Project”. They opposed the survey works during COVID-19 and announced indefinite protest from September 15. Erode Revenue Divisional Officer Saibudeen held talks with the farmers and assured them that no works would be taken up on the farm lands until a decision was taken.
The Special Officer and the Sub-Collector for the project had earlier asked farmers to submit petitions if they opposed the project. The officer had announced that an inquiry on the petitions would be held on October 27 and asked the farmers to appear at the office. But, the farmers said the conduct of inquiry was a violation of the agreement reached on September 15 and hence wanted the inquiry to be postponed. On Tuesday, the officer announced that based on the request from Erode MP and various farmers associations, the inquiry was postponed and the date of conduct of inquiry would be announced later.
