CHENNAI: State Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam on Monday hit back at Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami for alleging that the disease spread has adversely affected cane farmers in Cuddalore, Villupuram and Kallakurichi and caused enormous loss to them.
In a four-page rebuttal statement, Panneerselvam said that the cane acreage was 2.24 lakh hectare in the DMK regime till 20II, but it gradually declined by I.29 lakh hectares in the I0-year AIADMK regime and plummeted to 9I,000 hectares.
Accusing the LoP of conveniently forgetting the sharp fall in cane cultivation in their regime, Panneerselvam said that the area under cultivation (of cane) has been increased to I.50 lakh hectares in the two-year DMK regime since 202I. Cane procurement price was also gradually increased from Rs 2,750 per ton to Rs 3,0I6.25.