A group of farmers owing allegiance to the Tamil Nadu Tank and River Irrigated Areas Farmers Association, staged a novel protest on Monday, by rolling down in front of the Collector Office, calling upon the State government to include Tiruchi district in the protected agricultural zone.
As a symbolic form of expressing their dismay to the government’s decision to exclude the district, the farmers, who sported ‘namams’ on their forehead, rolled on the road watched by a large number of petitioners, who thronged the Collector’s Office to represent their grievances at the weekly Grievance Day meet.
Led by P. Viswanathan, president of the association, the farmers raised slogans, demanding that the Chief Minister include Tiuchi district in the protected agricultural zone, a Bill of which was introduced recently.
Revenue and police officials held talks with the farmers. Later, they met Collector S. Sivarasu and presented a petition. He in turn promised to take up the issue with the State government.
Mr. Viswanathan pointed out that in Salem Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had announced that Tiruchi and Ariyalur districts would also form part of the protected special agricultural zone along with Thanjavur, Nagappattinam and Tiruvarur. But, Tiruchi and Ariyalur districts had been left out in the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Act.
This had hurt the people of Tiruchi district. Agriculture was the lifeline of the district. While padddy was raised on about 1.5 lakh acres in the district, sugarcane and banana are raised on about 1 lakh acres. Omission of the district from the zone would mean giving a green signal for the Centre to start oil and gas exploration projects here. Hence, the State government should come forward to include Tiruchi district in the zone, he demanded.