Chennai, Aug 14:
The Opposition AIADMK staged a protest demonstration across Tamil Nadu on Friday condemning the ruling TVK headed by Chief Minister Vijay for its alleged lethargic and lackadaisical attitude in handling the Cauvery and Mekedatu dam issues and deceiving the farmers over non-waiver of farm loans in toto, even as the dissident Legislators headed by former Minister S.P.Velumani skipped it.
The agitation was also to highlight the plight of delta district farmers who could not take up Kuruvai crop cultivation this season due to non-availability of water for irrigation and facing severe drought as Cauvery river turned dry.
AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami, who led the protests in Thanjavur, the rice bowl of the State, slammed the Vijay government for its failure to honour its promise of complete waiver of crop loans availed by the farmers in cooperative institutions and its alleged inaction on the Cauvery and the Mekedatu dam issue.
Pointing out that the TVK in its election manifesto had promised complete waiver of crop loans by the farmers owning less than five acres and 50 per cent waiver for those owning over five acres, he said however, after assuming office, the government had failed to honour it and only announced that crop loans up to Rs 75,000 for small and marginal farmers would be fully waived, while only Rs 35,000 would be waived for loans above Rs 75,000.
Recalling that the farms loans were completely waived by the previous AIADMK government, EPS accused the ruling TVK of deceiving and betraying the farmers by making false promises, which has caused widespread resentment among them as their livelihood was at stake due to non release of water by Karnataka as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the orders of the Supreme court.
Their woes were further compounded due to non-opening of the sluice gates of the Mettur dam on the scheduled date of June 12 for irrigation due to poor storage level, he said and added that there was no mention about complete waiver of crop loans even in their maiden General and the Agricultural budgets presented in the Assembly on August 5 and 6 respectively.
Demanding complete waiver of all the farm loans without any discrimination (on loan component availed), he also cited the prevailing drought in the delta areas and urged the state government to provide a compenstion of Rs 25,000 per acre.
Turning to the emotive Cauvery and Mekedatu imbroglio, EPS accused Karnataka of not releasing due share of waters to Tamil Nadu in line with the Tribunal’s final award and the Apex Court orders and reiterated the AIADMK’s demand of convening an all party meeting to chalk out the next course of action.
He also charged the TVK government with adopting a “lackadaisical approach” at a time Karnataka was making all efforts to go ahead with the dam construction across the River Cauvery at Mekedatu affecting the livelihood of the farmers and not taking adequate steps to secure Tamil Nadu’s due share of Cauvery waters.
While urging the state government to take all steps to secure the Cauvery water, which was the lifeline of delta farmers, he also wanted it expedite its action to stall Karnataka’s move to proceed with the Mekedatu dam project.
Meanwhile, in what could be seen as widening signs of dissent within the AIADMK, Party heavyweights and former ministers SP.Velumani and Natham Viswanathan wrote to the party high command stating they will not participate in the protests condemning its failure to restore the earlier party posts held by the dissenting leaders, who were pardoned by the party after they violated the Whip and supported the Vijay regime in the confidence vote in the Assembly.
As per the schedule, Velumani , a native of Coimbatore, was scheduled to lead the stir in Theni district, while Viswanathan, who is from Dindigul, was assigned Ramanathapuram and another former minister KP Anbazhagan to lead it in Ranipet.
Another former Minister P.Thangamani, who was said to be moving closer to the dissident side, however, led the demonstration in Salem as per schedule.
In a letter to Palaniswami, Velumani and Viswanathan said the decision to specifically announce the participation of senior leaders in protests outside their respective districts was deliberate. They reiterated their earlier demand that the dissenting leaders be restored to the positions they held before the change in party leadership, which was agreed to but yet to be honoured.
The agitation was held in all the Revenue district headquarters of the state, except Chennai. Senior leaders, including former Ministers, lead the agitation in their respective districts.