The Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam has announced that demonstrations will be held at all the Union headquarters in five districts on June 1 urging the Union and State governments to shelve the hydrocarbon exploration project.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the State Executive Committee meeting, chaired by the State general secretary V. Duraimanickam and former MLA, S. Gunasekaran, which was held here on Thursday. The association pointed out that the Union and State governments had earlier announced that the project would not be implemented if people did not want it.
But now information has surfaced that a vast area of cultivable and non-cultivable lands in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts have been identified for exploration of hydrocarbon by drilling wells at 44 places and the entire area has been divided into three zones. While two zones have been allocated to the private companies, one has been allotted to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, it added.
In order to take forward the opposition to this project and to press the demand to declare the Delta region as a “protected agriculture zone”, it has been decided to organise demonstrations at all the Union headquarters in the five districts, including the core delta districts, where it has been proposed to implement the hydrocarbon extraction project.
In another resolution, the Sangam has urged the State government to implement measures to safeguard the public from water scarcity by constructing check dams across the Cauvery and Coleroon rivers and also ensure that water for irrigation was released from the Stanley Reservoir, Mettur, on June 12.