More than 200 farmers, most of them in loincloth, the traditional wear of Tamil Nadu farmers, staged a demonstration in front of the district collector’s office at Tiruchirappalli on Monday to give vent to their disappointment and dismay over the tranche of announcements worth Rs 20 lakh crore made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman during the last four days to rejuvenate the economy.
Disregarding the Government order on assembly of people and social distancing norms, the farmers singing folk songs highlighting their woes and worries assembled under the scorching sun and shouted slogans against the State and central Governments. “The series of announcements made by the Finance Minister are mere hogwash. It is not going to save the farmers from the impending disaster. You please wait for some more time and you will see many farmers committing suicide in Tamil Nadu,” Ayyakkannu Ponnusamy, president of South Indian River Inter Linking Association who led the agitation told The Pioneer.
“Considering the fact that 85 crore people in India are dependent on agriculture, the Government should have allocated a compensation of Rs 20,000 per acre for the loss caused due to the nationwide lockdown. This means that an amount of Rs 14 lakh crore should have been set apart to compensate for the loss suffered by the farmers. But whatever allocation the Finance Minister has made is far below the expectation,” said Ayyakkannu.
He said the Finance Minister should consider all farmers (small, medium and big) as one irrespective of the size of the farm they own and provide Rs 20,000 per acre as compensation for the loss suffered by the farmers due to lockdown.
“The agitation was a total success as many people took part in it irrespective of the weather and the fear of coronavirus. We will sit together later this week to decide about the future course of action,” said Ayyakkannu.
But Kattumamnnarkoil Kannan, vice president, Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, said that the measures announced by the Finance Minister would go a long way in resolving the problems faced by the farmers.
“The important thing about the announcements by the Finance Minister is that only real farmers would be eligible for farm loans now. What was happening in Tamil Nadu till now was the hijacking of farm loans by private financiers. They would usurp all loans meant for farmers at the rate of seven per cent interest and offer loans to farmers at the rate of 20 per cent interest.
This system will go with the reforms ordered by the finance minister,” said Kannan. But he expressed his reservations against disbursal of more loans because it would end up making the farmers more debt-ridden.