TENKASI: More than 100 farmers began an indefinite sit-in protest in front of the Collectorate on Thursday, urging the State government to help them recover dues of Rs 24 crore from management of three private mills.
These farmers staged a two-day protest with the same demands in October but withdrew it after the then collector G K Arun Sundar Thayalan promised them to get their pending dues by October 25.
Presiding over the protest, State Deputy President of Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers Association A M Palaniswami said, “In 2018-19, the Central government fixed Rs 2612.50 as the fair and remunerative price for a tonne of sugarcane.
Of the 42 government and private sugarcane mills in Tamil Nadu, 39 mills paid the dues to the farmers. However, three mills located at Vasudevanallur had not yet disbursed Rs 24 crore to the farmers.” Stating that the management had been delaying the payment for the past 21 months, the farmers claimed that the State government has not taken enough steps to help them get their money.
“In the talks organised in July 2019 by the then Collector of the Tirunelveli combined district Shilpa Prabhakar Sathish, the management promised us to pay the dues by September 2019. However, it failed. Since then, we are protesting but in vain.
We are struggling to repay the loan we took to raise the sugarcane. We are also not being able to pay school fees of our children,” said the farmers, adding that this time they would not withdraw their protest until they get their dues.