Despite the loan waiver and the special zone announcement, Delta residents cited concerns
On the surface, it may be assembly election issues in the Cauvery delta region. The declaration of the delta region as Protected Special Agricultural Area (PSAZ) and waiving the cooperative agricultural loan of ₹ 12,000 crore seems to have resolved long-standing issues of farmers. But “lack of progress” and dissatisfaction in favor of one class may play a role in the election.
V. a farmer of Mannargudi. Sethuraman said, “Even though the state government has created the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Area Authority, not a single meeting has been held so far, though it should meet at least twice a year.”
According to him, the single license method would come in handy for oil companies, including ONGC, so that they could drill through unconventional methods to extract shale, tight gas and coal bed methane. “I am repeating this because existing projects are not banned and companies can opt for unconventional methods,” he said.
His argument was supported by G. Varadarajan did, the state convenor of “Save Our Rice”, who said that the government had not formed state and district-level committees to effectively implement the vision behind the protected agricultural sector.
“Till now, there has been no attempt to launch agro-based industries which will increase the value of agricultural products. We need a special agricultural university [other than TNAU]”We will do research on this subject,” he said.
While off-shoots of the protected agricultural sector are the subject of debate among those who know the issue outside, what really dominates at the grassroots level is the “favor of a particular class” in waiving loans.
Sami Natarajan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Union, said, “Most of the ruling party have benefited from the debt waiver and only 25% of the people are entitled to it.” He said that medium-term loans were not canceled.
R. of the Kaveri Vivasayagal Sangam. Palaniwell also agreed that waiving the loans would not help much as the farmers still had to pay back the medium-term loans.
Great relief
But there were others who said that debt waiver and the release of ₹ 2,500 in the form of Pongal offered much needed success for people in rural areas. Assistance to cyclone prevention and Burevi also came as a relief to the farmers.
“2,500 gifts is a huge amount for a farming family. Debt waiver also helped many people. A Kudiramarthu ‘project restored a lot of reservoirs in the district. But farmers still feel that the rate of paddy should be Rs 2,500 per quintal. Anyone visiting villages in the delta will see the impact of the actions of ‘Kudiramarthu’ – especially water showers with water after heavy rains.
Vanchi Kootalingam, a farmer from Pallathu near Pattukkottai, said that 2. 2.94 crore loan was waived for farmers in his village alone.
President of Thiruvarur District Panchayat G. Balasubramanian said that loans were not forgiven when people were desperate and during hardship during the epidemic.
The DMK announced the government only after making a demand for it. Im Kudiramarthu ‘irregularity in functions and MNREGA will be on people’s minds on election day,’ ‘Mr. Balasubramanian, who is also a DMK officer.
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