Drop acquiring agricultural land for highway project: Farmers

TENKASI: Farmers in Tenkasi district on Thursday petitioned the collector to drop acquiring agricultural land for the four-lane highway and reiterated their demand for an alternative route for the project.
In their petition to collector G K Arun Sundar Thayalan, the farmers stated that the government had announced a project to lay a four-lane highway from Sengottai in Tenkasi district to Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district (NH 744).The initial stages for the project commenced in October 2018 and the government also notified the areas from where land would be acquired for this project.
The farmers said the government had planned to acquire 1,863 acres of agricultural lands from 23 villages at Sivagiri, Kadayanallur and Sengottai taluks in the district. Since they would be largely affected, they had staged several protests in this regard.
Though they had submitted an alternate route for this project, no steps were taken by the NHAI officials.