Two judgements by Madras High Court, one on the waiver of farm loans availed by farmers irrespective of the quantity of land owned by them and the other on holding of local body elections in the State before May 14, have put the Tamil Nadu Government in a tight spot.
The verdict on the waiver of farm loans on a plea submitted by National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturist Association, means that all agricultural loans availed by farmers who owned more than five acres and above should also be waivered. The Tamil Nadu Government, in two separate orders issued in May and June 2016, had written off all farm loans availed by farmers who owned land up to five acres. It directed the State Government to approach the Centre seeking the latter’s help in meeting the additional amount of Rs1980.33 crore needed to write of the loans availed by farmers holding more than five acres of land.
A group of farmers under the leadership of Ponnuchamy Ayyakkanu from Tiruchrappalli has been staging a demonstration in New Delhi wearing loincloths for the last three weeks to draw the attention of the Union Government towards their plea to write of farm loans availed by them. This agitation had earned the wrath of various farm associations in the State, the leaders of which alleged that Ayyakkannu was engaged in theatrics and he was not a farmer.
The Union Government had on March 31, 2017, released an amount of Rs2014. 45 crore towards Tamil Nadu following the State Government’s appeal for financial assistance to meet the drought and cyclone relief and resettlement programmes.
The first bench of acting chief justice Huluvadi Raesh and RMT Teekka Raman had issued a stern warning to the State Government on Monday for the inordinate delay in holiding the local body election and warnd the Government that contempt of court proceedings would be initiated againt it if it fails to hold the local body election before May 14. The Government of Tamil Nadu has issued a notification on September 26, 2016 for holding the local body election on October 17 and 19, 2016 which was quashed by the Court following complaints from opposition parties that they were not given sufficient times to prepare for the ballot battle. Justice Kirubakaran, while quashing the Government order had asked the State Government to complete the local body polls before December 31.
Since then the State Government has been delaying the local body elections furnishing various explanations . On Monday, the State Election Commission had told the court that it needed further time to revise the electoral roles. The first bench retorted by ordering that if the court order was not complied with, the Government would have to face the charge of contempt of court.
The split in the ruling party, the easing out of former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and the subsequent political developments have put the Palaniswamy Government in a corner forcing it to postpone the local body polls which should have been completed before October 2016 in normal course of time.