CPI seeks total waiver of crop loan by TN govt.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has demanded a total waiver of crop loans by the State government here on Monday.

Staging a demonstration in Ramanathapuram, the agitation, led by N. K. Rajan said that the farmers had invested heavily on the crops. Unexpected and unseasonal rains, which lashed the standing crops, had destroyed bringing in heavy loss.

Under such circumstances, giving ₹50,000 or ₹75,000 waiver on loans to select categories was not going to bring any relief to the farmers. The surveys conducted by the officials stood higher than the relief announced by the government and hence the TVK party, which too had promised to give 100 % relief cannot go back on its word.

The farmers were at a total loss due to the unexpected rains and in such circumstances, the government should come to the rescue, they urged. The Department of Agriculture officials had also been campaigning to insure the crops and make the farmers pay premium. However, during claims, the insurance firms had not been keeping up their commitment. “It is like a double blow from both the insurance company and the government, which did not help the farmers”, they pointed.

Desilting PWD tank

Villagers from Pulangulam at Ramanathapuram Collectorate on Monday.
| Photo Credit:
BALACHANDAR L

A group of villagers from Pulangulam in Kadaladi block in Ramanathapuram district appealed to the District Collector Sivaguru Prabhakaran to direct the officials to desilt a PWD tank in their habitation. In a memorandum submitted to the Collector, Paripooranam, a farmer said that there were 300 families in the village. The PWD tank, which provided water to nearly 380 acres of land, required desilting.

The tank, he said, had not been desilted for over three decades. Hence, the farmers had not been receiving Vaigai water. If desilted and bunds strengthened, the Koothankaalvai channel would get copious water for irrigation. Now, only when there was rainfall, the tail end farmers benefited due to surplus water flowing in the fields.

Hence, they appealed to the district administration to immediately direct the authorities to desilt the waterbody.