CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary and opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday accused the DMK government of failing farmers by “mishandling” paddy procurement and turning this year’s Deepavali into a “festival of tears”.
In a statement, Palaniswami said while farmers have been struggling to tackle multiple challenges like getting loans from cooperative societies, fertiliser shortages and erratic rainfall due to climate change, the state government has failed to purchase their harvested paddy on time. Palaniswami alleged that under the DMK regime, procurement has dropped to 600 bags per day against the 1,000 bags during the AIADMK government.
He added that the AIADMK government had obtained the union government’s approval to increase the permissible moisture content in paddy purchases from 17% to 22% to benefit farmers.
“Now, farmers are complaining about inadequate gunny bags and lack of tarpaulin sheets to protect paddy from rain,” Palaniswami said.
He also criticised the government for not opening 41 direct procurement centres in Madurai district despite the collector’s order issued in September. Citing NCRB data that 1,968 farmers died by suicide between 2021 and 2023 in Tamil Nadu, Palaniswami warned that the number could rise due to the DMK’s administrative failures.