Tiruvarur farmer suffers chest pain during protest, dies in hospital

Sources said that even as farmers were raising slogans during an agitation in Tiruvarur demanding relief for the withered samba and other crops, Mahalingam (47) of Kovilur near Muthupettai, complained of chest pain. Soon he was rushed to Tiruvarur Medical college hospital where he was declared brought dead. The deceased Mahalingam is survived by wife and a 17-year-old daughter. 

Similar protests were held in front of all the Collectorates across the delta districts on Monday as members of various farmers’ associations, including Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, Tamil Nadu Farm Workers Association and Federation of Farmers Associations. There was severe commotion in most places when the protestors attempted to besiege the Collectorates. 

Besides compensation, farmers also demanded that Tamil Nadu be declared as drought-hit state. A few farmers sustained injuries when they tried to jump off the barricades erected to prevent their entry in Thanjavur and Nagapattinam, while heated arguments were witnessed between the police and the farmers at Tiruchy, Tiruvarur and Pudukkottai. The farmers who converged in front of the Collectorate premises demanded to establish the Cauvery Management Board immediately. 

Regretting the rise in number of farmers’ suicide and death due to cardiac arrest reportedly caused by the sight of withered crops, they demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh each to the family members of the deceased farmers and a compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre for the crop loss along with Rs 25,000 for agriclutural workers for loss of jobs. 

Similarly, they demanded work for the MGREGS workers throughout the year and to increase the daily wage to Rs 400. While the default payment for the sugarcane farmers should be disbursed immediately, the compensation for the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) for the year 2015-16 should also be given at once, they insisted. The farmers urged the Centre to drop its proposal to set up a single, permanent tribunal to adjudicate all inter-state river water disputes subsuming existing eight tribunals including Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. 

In Coimbatore, 80 farmers, including 20 women and a few trade union representatives, who picketed the Coimbatore Collectorate, on Monday, urging the State Government to declare Tamil Nadu as a drought-hit State, were arrested. They sought waiver of bank loans obtained by farmers and efforts to put an end to suicides and sudden deaths of farmers due to withered crops. The protestors led by Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam district president S Palanisamy claimed that the severe drought has forced farmers in this region to undergo a lot of hardship and they were not able to provide water even to their cattle. All of them were released later in the evening.