A section of farmers staged a walkout from the grievance day meeting here on Friday in protest against implementation of hydrocarbon project in the delta region .
The farmers, who came out of the Collectorate building, raised slogans demanding declaration of delta region as ‘protected agricultural zone’ to protect agricultural operations. Later, talking to reporters, N.V.Kannan, Thanjavur district secretary, Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to Communist Party of India (Marxist), termed the hydrocarbon project as nothing but an effort to turn the fertile delta region into a desert.
He called upon farmers and the public to take part in the protest to be staged in the delta districts on July 23 to ensure that the project was dropped.
Members of Thanjai District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association, led by its secretary Sundara Vimalanathan, who also joined the walkout, distributed sweets at the meeting claiming that farmers in Chhattisgarh were being offered ₹2,500 per quintal of paddy as procurement price after the State government added ₹750 as bonus over the minimum support price. He also presented the sweets to Collector A. Annadurai who accepted it with a smile.“We want to thank the Chhattisgarh government for being considerate towards farmers,” he said apparently in an attempt to draw the attention of the authorities to the Tamil Nadu farmers’ demand for increase in the procurement price for paddy.
Another group of farmers, led by R.Sukumaran, State vice-president, Federation of Thamizhaga Vivasaya Sangangal, staged a symbolic protest at the Collectorate with bandages on their person alleging that the negligent attitude of the government towards farmers had pushed agricultural operations in the State to a state of coma.
Cases against students
Meanwhile, the Mannargudi police in Tiruvarur district have registered a case against 10 students of Rajagopalaswamy Arts and Science College for staging a demonstration against the hydrocarbon project, organised by the Student Federation of India, without obtaining permission.
