Cancel Ring Road project, say farmers.

A group of farmers from villages along the route of the Ring Road project from Thathampatti near Vadipatti to Thamaraipatti, proposed by the National Highways Authority of India, petitioned Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao during the monthly farmers’ grievance meeting here on Friday demanding the cancellation of the project.

Pointing out that the Highways Department of Tamil Nadu was already doing a detailed project report for a similar ring road project to connect the Madurai-Dindigul and Madurai-Tiruchi highway with less cost and land acquisition, the farmers said that NHAI project at a cost of more than ₹ 700 crore must be dropped.

Presenting a map showing the tentative routes proposed for both projects, they said that NHAI’s project, which goes along the fertile double-crop farm lands under Periyar irrigation, will be detrimental to agriculture and water resources in the district.

Hearing the petition, the Collector assured to discuss the project with officials and inspect the land in the villages that had been marked for acquisition.

The farmers also complained that administration in cooperative societies was in a mess due to withholding of elections following litigations and lack of clarity on delegation of powers.

“With the cultivation season to commence soon, many farmers applying for crop loans are not getting any response,” said M.P. Raman, a farmer from Nadumuthalaikulam near Usilampatti.

M. Tirupathi, a farmer from Tirumangalam, alleged that there were widespread irregularities in the cooperative elections.

Responding to the allegations, officials from Cooperative department said that powers had been delegated to officials to ensure that loan applications were processed on time.

Other issues raised by the farmers at the meeting included encroachment on waterbodies in many places, wild growth of prosopsis juliflora (seemai karuvelam) in waterbodies, damage to the crops by wild animals, and issues in the desilting and other maintenance work being carried out by the Public Works Department in waterbodies and canals.

Highlighting that majority of the grievances were related to PWD, the Collector asked PWD officials to be proactive in addressing the concerns of the farmers.

THE HINDU