TIRUCHY: Farmers from Thanjavur staged a sit-in protest in the grievances redressal hall on Friday, condemning the officials who demand Rs 10,000 per unit of vandal sand (alluvial soil) from waterbodies.
The Farmers Grievances Redressal meeting in Thanjavur, chaired by Collector R Revathi, saw various issues being raised. The farmers demanded not to release water from Mettur on September 1 as the samba cultivation is not favourable at this moment.
While the discussions were on, a section of farmers charged that the water resource department officials have been demanding Rs 10,000 as a bribe for dredging the vandal sand, and they demanded that the Collector curb the menace.
Suddenly, a group of farmers headed by Kakkarai R Sukumaran, State Vice President of Federation of Tamil Nadu Farmers Associations, moved forward and staged a sit-in protest in front of the Collector.
Sukumaran said, while the Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has been promising a corruption-free government, the officials are in the practice of demanding bribes. He charged that the officials from water resources and revenue departments demand bribes from the farmers who approach them for permission for dredging vandal sand.
He also said that the bribe of Rs 40 per bag has been continuing in all the DPCs and demanded the Collector to instruct the officials to stop collecting bribes.
Upon assurance, they withdrew their protest, and the meeting continued, in which the farmers said that there was a tradition to release water for 200 days for Delta irrigation, but the present TVK government has announced the release of water for 45 days, which will never support the irrigation. They appealed to the State government to wait until the Mettur reaches 100 feet and then release water.