CHENNAI: The group of Tamil Nadu farmers, led by P Ayyakannu, withdrew their protest on Saturday after a meeting with Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami, saying they were given strong assurances by the Chief Minister over their demands, including waiver of farm loans.
“We’re suspending protests for now, as the Chief Minster agreed to fulfil all demands in about two months,” Ayyakannu, State president of National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturalist Association, told the group of farmers eagerly waiting when he and a few other farmer leaders were in a nearly hour-long meeting at the Secretariat. As most hands went up in support of the move, the farmers dispersed.
He also listed demands that the Chief Minister agreed to consider. “He will reconsider the government’s decision to appeal against the Supreme Court verdict that said loans of farmers with over five acres must also be waived,” he said.
He said the officials had explained the financial crisis the state government is undergoing and it a couple of months to meet the demands. The arrears of about Rs 8,540 crore in minimum support prices of sugarcane would be cleared within two months.
The Chief Minister has also agreed to the plea of providing pension to farmers over 60 years of age, irrespective of the size of land owned by them. Among the other demands he said the chief minister promised to fulfil are directing the banks not to auction the gold pledged by farmers. The Chief Minister also promised that the State would not give no-objection certificates to the hydrocarbon projects in delta regions.
The protest site erupted in happiness as Ayyakannu listed the promises made by the Chief Minister. Only the previous night there was much tension at Chepauk as the police surrounded the protesters and putting pressure to vacate the venue. Ayyakannu had warned that he along with the other farmers will run naked if they were forcefully ejected from their protesting site.
On Saturday afternoon, arrangements were made for the farmers to return to their villages after Ayyakannu finished briefing the press. The farmers were escorted around 1.45 pm in a police van to Egmore railway station where most of them boarded Pallavan Express around 3.30 pm which was bound for Karaikkudi. Few of them left like the farmer leader Ayyakannu left in an SUV.
