Over 1,000 members of Tamilnadu Vivasayigal Sangam and other farmers’ organisations on Thursday staged a demonstration over a set of demands, including stopping the land acquisition for the expansion of NLCIL, the Salem-Chennai Express Highway and waiving farm loans.
The demonstration was inaugurated by Yogendra Yadav, president of Swaraj Abhiyan and member of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an association of 194 farmer groups across the country.
Mr. Yadav said an agrarian crisis was prevailing across the country and farmers have been put to untold sufferings by ruling governments.
Deciding factor
Farmers’ issues will be the deciding factor in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, he said.
CPI-M state secretary K. Balakrishnan, National-South Indian Rivers Inter-Linking Farmers Association president P. Ayyakannu and other prominent leaders of farmers’ associations participated in the demonstration held in front of the State Guest House at Chepauk.
P. Shanmugam, general secretary of the Tamilnadu Vivasayigal Sangam, said, “Across the country, the ruling governments at the Centre and States forcibly are snatching cultivable lands of farmers under the pretext of acquiring them for the purpose of development.
The rulers indulge in snatching the lands of farmers to help corporates and deprive livelihood of farmers.”
The protesters also said the authorities should stop land acquisition for Neyveli Lignite Corporation's mining project in 26 villages, the scrapping of hydro-carbon extraction from the Cauvery delta, the Salem-Chennai Express Highway and Tirumangalam- Kollam Highway.
