TIRUCHI
A toll-free number would soon be notified exclusively for farmers to register their grievances, Collector M. Pradeep Kumar said on Friday.
Speaking at the monthly farmers’ grievances redressal day meeting here, Mr. Kumar observed that not all farmers in the district can attend the grievances meeting held in the city. Farmers from different parts of the district can register their complaints or gets their doubts clarified by dialling the toll-free number, he said and directed his Personal Assistant (Agriculture) to ensure that the toll-free line was functional within two days.
Later, speaking at the meeting a section of the farmers called upon the district administration to take steps to check the pollution caused to the Uyyakondan canal that cuts across the city due to discharge of sewage. Raising the issue, Ayilai Siva.Suriyan, district secretary, Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, affiliated to the Communist Party of India, called for steps to prevent discharge of sewage into the canal and suggested that solar panels can be erected over the canal to generate power too. Sewage discharges into the Cauvery river should also be prevented, he demanded.
R. Subramaniam, deputy secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, said the pollution due to the discharge of urban sewage, including those from some hospitals in the city, was posing a health hazard to farmers. Agricultural lands were also being affected, he said and called for urgent steps to check the pollution.
Mr.Pradeep Kumar said that the Corporation was working on a project to check pollution of the Uyyakondan canal.
Mr. Siva. Suriyan complained that water for irrigation has still not reached the tail-end of irrigation canals in some places in the district. He urged the Water Resources Department to desilt the three kilometer stretch of a “B-type irrigation canal" branching off from the Kattalai High Level Canal at Mettukadu. Heavy weed growth and silt accumulation have left the canal, which irrigates about 3,000 acres in Koppu, Melapatti and Paraipatti, in a poor shape, he said.
P. Ayyakannu, president, Desiya Thennindia Nadigal Inaippu Vivasayigal Sangam, complained that the primary agricultural cooperative societies were not extending loans to farmers for erecting props to support banana trees to prevent them from lodging.
