KARUR: Farmers of Kovakulam staged a road roko and laid seige to a government bus in Karur on Thursday, as the DPC in their region had not been reopened after Pongal. According to sources, DPCs at Veerarakkiyam, Kattalai and Kovakulam have been functioning for the past 15 years.
The Veerarakkiyam and Kattalai centres began operations about a month ago, while the Kovakulam centre was yet to be reopened. This has, in turn, delayed the harvest of paddy cultivated on about 5,000 acres in Kovakulam region.
Marimuthu, a farmer from Kovakulam, said, “We have been waiting for weeks for officials to reopen the Kovakulam DPC. We don’t have enough space or facilities to store harvested paddy, and so crops are yet to be harvested.
The Collector should do the needful.” Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Regional Manager Bhuvaneshwari told TNIE, “The Kovakulam DPC issue has been taken up with the Collector. We will reopen the centre once we receive an order copy from the Collector. The DPC was not opened earlier owing to shortage of workforce.”