NAGAPATTINAM: Small scale salt producers in Vedaranyam are set to appeal against a recent Madras High Court verdict that rejected a batch of over 170 writ petitions, including theirs, seeking automatic renewal of their lease period on government salt pans.
The producers in Vedaranyam had been demanding for the same after their 20-year lease of salterns expired this year. They also had challenged a 2013 Union government order that dictated the hike of land rent from Rs 5 to Rs 120 per acre per year. The salt producers had petitioned the Madras High Court over the demands, but the latter dismissed them on Wednesday. The order means salt producers now face an ouster from the salterns they were working in for years, and a fresh auction of the lands.
The court had also directed the salt producers to leave within three months the premises where lease periods have expired.
“Corporate firms would take over the salterns we had worked in for decades. We cannot compete with them as they would bid high. We will be driven out of our means of livelihood. Many of us were producing salt for generations before the government had leased it. We will appeal against the verdict to a higher bench in the same court," said V Senthil, the secretary of Vedaranyam Salt Scale Salt Manufacturers Federation.
The salt producers said they are ready to pay a reasonable land rent.
There are two corporate firms, GHCL and Chemplast Sanmar, that produce salt in about 6,000 acres owned by the State government. Small scale salt production, meanwhile, is carried out in villages such as Agasthiyampalli, Kodiyakadu, Kailavanampettai, Kadinalvayal, and Kodiyakarai in Vedaranyam block over an area of 3000 acres owned by the Union government. As the central leases expire, around 800 small scale salt producers face an exit.
The court in its order had stated that leasing government lands for 99 years or an automatic renewal of the lease would deprive the rights of other citizens who are aspiring for an opportunity in salt manufacturing or its related activities.
"Even though the leases are for 20 years, we manufacture salt for only half a year, between spring and monsoon. It thus makes it as short as 10 years of actual production. The lease period does not reflect our usage. We are planning to take it up with the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries," said A Vedarathinam, a salt producer and grandson of freedom fighter Sardar Vedaratnam.