CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the government authorities concerned to expedite the enumeration of coconut trees which fell on account of cyclone ‘Gaja’ and assess the compensation payable to farmers.
A division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam issued the directive while admitting a PIL petition from R Kalaiselvan of Kasangadu village in Thanjavur district.
The bench tagged this PIL with other similar petitions and posted the matter for further hearing on January 3.
Petitioner said that due to the paucity of water from Cauvery, farmers in the village had shifted to cultivation of coconut trees from paddy. They had to spend at least `six lakh per hectare for the trees.
Farmers can earn up to Rs 2,700 from each tree from the sale of coconuts alone, leave alone products such as husk, leaves and broomsticks Due to the devastating cyclone, 80 per cent of the coconut trees were either uprooted or completely destroyed.
The State government had announced a package of `600 per fallen tree and another `500 for clearing them and for a hectare coconut farm with an average of 175 trees, the compensation will work out to only `2.64 lakh. Small farmers having less than two hectares and trees in the houses were not taken into account. The announcement was meagre and there is a need to re-assess the loss, petitioner contended and prayed for a directive to government to grant adequate compensation proportionate to their losses.
Life convict gets 2-week parole for conjugal visit
Chennai: “Man is a social animal... conjugal visits lead to strong family bonds and keep the family functional rather than becoming dysfunctional due to prolonged isolation and lack of sexual contact.”
Quoting this portion of a judgement delivered by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court earlier, a division bench here has granted parole for two weeks to a life convict lodged in Cuddalore Central Prison to exercise his conjugal rights.
The bench was passing orders on the habeas corpus petition from a woman praying for a grant of parole for two weeks to her husband under conjugal rights.
Earlier, the convict was granted parole for one week from April 29 this year for the same purpose.