The Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to the Communist Party of India, has urged the Centre to come out with a separate budget for agriculture. It also wanted the Centre to accord priority to the agriculture sector and plan accordingly.
A resolution to this effect was adopted at the Sangam’s 25 State-level conference being held here. The three-day conference concludes on Monday.
It said India was an agrarian country with nearly 70 per cent of the population involved in agricultural production. Facing several challenges, farmers were losing hope and were driven to a situation of abandoning agriculture.
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Lakhs of farmers have discarded agriculture, the Sangam said claiming that the Centre had not accorded due care for protecting agriculture. Another resolution urged the Centre to immediately constitute the Cauvery Management Board and the Monitoring Committee without any further delay and ensure water that was due for Tamil Nadu. By yet another resolution, the Sangam demanded the Centre to immediately withdraw the proposed coal-bed methane project and allay the fears of the people of delta districts. It wanted the State government to check illegal sand mining to protect rivers and water resources.
Steps to protect environment, linking of various rivers in the State and construction of check dams in the Coleroon river to improve groundwater table were among the other resolutions adopted at the conference. Atul Kumar Anjan, all-India general secretary, All India Kisan Sabha, senior CPI leader R. Nallakannu and representatives of the Sangam took part in the delegates conference held on Sunday.