Farmers 'bury' themselves in Cauvery river bed in protest for various demands

TIRUCHY: A section of farmers from Tiruchy staged a novel protest on Wednesday by ‘burying’ themselves in the Cauvery river bed, raising several demands, including adequate water release to tail-end regions and the waiver of crop loans.

The members from Desiya Thennidhiya Nadhigal Inaippu Sangam, headed by the state president P Ayyakannu, assembled at the Cauvery river bed close to the Cauvery bridge near Chinthamani and ‘buried’ themselves in the river sand and raised slogans in support of their demands.

Highlighting that several lakhs of cusecs of water are wasted into the sea, the protesting members urged the government to initiate measures to link the Ayyaru and the Cauvery from Mettur, thereby diverting a minimum of 2,000 cusecs into the canal. This minimal amount of water could irrigate around 5 lakh acres in Salem, Namakkal, Tiruchy, Perambalur, and Ariyalur districts. “This would also fill around 1,000 major and minor water bodies in these districts, recharging the groundwater level”, said Ayyakannu.

If the linking of Ayyaru and Cauvery is materialised, the farmers would be forever grateful to Chief Minister MK Stalin, claimed Ayyakannu.

He also appealed to the government to waive the crop loans availed by small and medium farmers through the Cooperative societies in 2014. Besides these demands, Ayyakannu demanded a pension of Rs 5,000 per month for farmers aged 60 and above.

In addition, the agitators demanded measures to repair the check dam Alagiripuram in Srirangam, waiver of education loans for the wards of farmers, and protection of tenant farmers from Pappakurichi in Kattur who have been facing hurdles at the hands of big-time farmers from the locality.

As no official turned up for talks, the protesting farmers proceeded to stage a rail roko protest at the Cauvery bridge.