A group of dairy farmers petitioned Collector’s office on Saturday alleging indiscriminate seizure of cash by officials monitoring the implementation of model code of conduct in Madurai Parliament constituency.
The immediate reason for the farmers to submit a petition was the seizure of ₹ 2,43,000 near Nagamalai Pudukkottai by a flying squad. The amount, the farmers said, was the money to be paid by a private society for the milk the farmers had supplied earlier.
M. Pothumani, one of the dairy farmers, said that hundreds of farmers from the area supplied milk to the society daily through agents. “Their vehicles come and collect the milk daily. Once in a week, the money for the milk supplied will be sent to us in these vehicles for distribution to us,” she said.
K. Kasimayan said that all the farmers solely relied on the income from supplying milk. “Apart from meeting our own expenses, we use this money only to buy feed for the cattle. We do not have any other source of income,” he said.
Thangaran, the managing director of the private society, said that the vehicle carried the documents showing the amount to be given to each farmers depending on the milk supplied. “However, the officials were not willing to accept that as adequate proof,” he said. “It is not clear what sort of proof is expected by the officials for transactions like these,” he said.
Stating that it was a tedious process to reclaim the seized amount, he and the farmers appealed to the district administration to work out remedial measures to ensure that innocent people did not get affected.
