Chief Minister meets farmers, stir withdrawn

Government seeks two months to address the long-pending grievances of farmers

Seen and heard: Farmers announcing their decision to withdraw their agitation after Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami met them in Chennai on Saturday.

The farmers’ agitation, called by the National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturists’ Association, was withdrawn on Saturday following a meeting between Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and representatives of the association.

Announcing the decision to call off the protest near the Government Guest House in Chepauk here, P. Ayyakannu, president of the association, said the government had agreed to compensate a group of farmers of Tiruvannamalai district who had suffered losses as cheques, issued to them by a trader for getting paddy, were dishonoured subsequently.

A senior official of the State Agriculture Department said an order would be issued shortly, sanctioning about ₹1.4 crore. The government would later recover the amount from the trader.

Appreciating the Chief Minister for having invited the farmers for talks, Mr. Ayyakannu said the meeting lasted an hour and the Chief Minister sought two months to address many long-pending issues that have agitated farmers.

Mr. Ayyakannu said that Mr. Palaniswami responded positively to his suggestion that district collectors should be asked to advise banks not to engage in recovery proceedings against farmers who had taken short-term crop loans.

Fiat to banks

According to a communication sent by the State-Level Bankers’ Committee to the Agricultural Production Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Agriculture) in the State government Gagandeep Singh Bedi about a month ago, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had agreed to have the drought relief measures of commercial banks extended up to July 10, 2017.

As per the decision of the RBI, the banks had been authorised to convert short-term crop loans into term loans, reschedule the existing term loans, and issue fresh loans for cultivation.

Mr. Ayyakannu raised other issues such as the settlement of arrears from private sugar mills to cane farmers and the coverage of farmers under the scheme of old-age pension.

The Chief Minister had explained to the farmers’ leader the financial crunch the government was facing. “If the government does not meet our demands in two months, the farmers will launch another round of agitation,” Mr. Ayyakannu added.