Farmers decide to vote for any party that supports their cause

MADURAI: Expressing their displeasure over the ruling AIADMK for not fulfilling its promise over the last five years, farmers of three villages in the district have decided to vote for any party that supports their demand on scrapping the proposed industrial estate in their agricultural land.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, secretary of Madurai District Farmers Welfare Association S Ramalingam said 1478.71 acres of agricultural land were termed as barren land and acquired for establishing a SIPCOT industrial estate in Sivarakottai, Karisalkalampatti and Swamimallampatti through a government order dated June 12, 2009. There are 10 tanks, one hill temple and 25 acres of land belonging to five temples in the region.

"Though 2,500 barren lands are available in the region, the government is keen on acquiring our agricultural land," a farmer said. "Successive governments managed to pass orders for acquisition after officials lied that our lands were barren. Officials didn't take into account that the orders have hit the livelihood of hundreds of farmers," Ramalingam said.

Even in this season, farmers have harvested a bumper crop of toor dal and millets. "Irony is that we were even given awards for cultivating quality millets and processing unit was set up in the village after acquisition notice was issued," he pointed out. The farmers also displayed all the crops cultivated and pictures of flora and fauna in their villages.

Farmers said the ruling AIADMK promised to revoke the acquisition order during the last assembly election and secured their votes. But it failed to revoke the order. "We have decided to cast our votes only to the party which will support us in this struggle," said C Subramanian, a temple priest in Sivarakottai village.