NAGAPATTINAM: In a press meet held here on Sunday, all major political parties, except AIADMK and BJP, extended their wholehearted support to the train blockade stir by the All Farmer Unions’ Joint Movement (AFUJM) on Tuesday in three areas here. The representatives of the Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Union also asked the political parties to avoid carrying party flags and banners during the protest as part of demonstrating a unified struggle.
The state-wide blockade, which will lay siege to Nagapattinam, Sirkazhi and Mayiladuthurai railway stations here, will be held on various demands, including pressing the banks not to confiscate the properties of farmers, stop auctioning their jewels for non-payment of loan dues, waiver of agriculture loans and fixing a minimum profit price by adding 50 per cent extra price to the production cost.
At the advisory meet, attended by representatives of various farmers’ unions, Cauvery Farmers Protection Union general secretary V Dhanapalan said, “Whenever a farmer commits suicide over crop failure or agricultural debt, the FIR mentions family dispute as the reason for the death. Thus, the police are indirectly indulging in minimising the farmer suicide counts.”
He also said that 93 per cent of agricultural loans were paid back by the farmers unlike 41 corporate companies which owe 72 per cent of the debts to the private and government banks.
Referring to the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers, the farmers questioned the delay in implementing the fixation of the proposed minimum profit price.