CHENNAI: Harping on their demands to fulfil the promises made to them when they were protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Tamil Nadu farmers resumed their agitation on agrarian distress on Friday, this time in Chennai.
Led by the State president of the National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturalist Association, P Ayyakannu, they began the demonstration at Chepauk, putting forth the same demands, including the formation of the Cauvery Management Board and loan waiver.
“We withdrew our protests in Delhi after Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami assured that he would take up our demands with the Prime Minister. But till now, we haven’t got any clear answers on our demands. So we are restarting the protests, and are hopeful that our chief minister will not let us down this time,” said Ayyakannu.
The protest attracted many youngsters who claimed to have taken part in jallikattu protests on the Marina Beach, and minor outfits who reached Chepauk to extend support.
Though they were given permission for only an hour in the morning, the farmers, mostly from the Cauvery delta, continued till late evening.
They refused to heed the police demand to move to a nearby building. Finally, a police team, led by Joint Commissioner (East Zone) S Manoharan, left the place while the farmers continued their protest.
Farmers have been demanding the formation of the Cauvery Management Board for sharing the Cauvery river water impartially. They have also sought farm loan waiver and drought relief package in addition to compensation for crop failures and clearance of arrears in minimum support prices of sugarcane yield for about Rs 8,450 crore.
Other demands include investigations into the misuse of authority in regulation markets in delta districts and dropping plans to extract hydrocarbon at Neduvasal village in Pudukkottai.
The agitation that took place in Delhi in March and April saw these farmers eating snake and rat meat, running naked on the road near the Prime Minister’s office, tonsuring their heads and even drinking urine. Such unorthodox protests managed to grab attention, including that of political leaders across the country.
They finally withdrew their protests after a gruelling 40 days, as Palaniswami requested them to withdraw it and assured to convey their concerns and demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.