TIRUCHY: If DMK returns to power, the tenant farming system would be abolished as it is an anti-farmer party, said PR Pandian, President, Coordination Committee of All Farmers Association on Tuesday. He alleged that farmers had undergone untold misery during the past five years.
Speaking to reporters in Mayiladuthurai after the interaction with the association members, Pandian said the farmers of Mayiladuthurai were affected by the natural calamity, and they faced severe loss for the past four years. "But the DMK government failed to distribute compensation to the farmers. The farmers who were protesting for compensation were arrested and tortured in prison," he said.
Stating that the DMK is an anti-farmer party, Pandian said that the party, during the 2021 Assembly election manifesto, promised the farmers of constructing 1,000 check dams across the state to store water, but it failed to do so.
“Due to the failure in the construction of check dams, the sea water entered the Kollidam river to a distance of 30 km in Sirkazhi taluk. Farmers staged a series of protests, but their demands were not resolved," Pandian said.
Pandian charged that the DMK government had withdrawn the rights of tenant farming in the lands owned by temples in Sirkazhi, and those tenant farmers who were denied the right to undertake farming activities were also refused farmers' identity cards for the benefits provided by the agriculture department.
“In such a scenario, if DMK returns to power, the tenant farming system would be abolished across the state, and the farmers involved in such activity would lose their livelihood as those lands would be transferred to corporate firms,” cautioned Pandian.