COIMBATORE: A group of farmers, who took part in a protest led by Coimbatore MP PR Natarajan, on Thursday warned that they would file a land grab case against the higher education department because compensation for land acquired for Bharathiar University has not been settled yet.
Nearly 200 members of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association staged a protest in front of the university, demanding compensation.
Addressing media persons, Natarajan said 43 years ago, around 1000 acres were acquired for establishing the university. "The then AIADMK government fixed `1900 as compensation for one cent. In 1997, farmers filed a case opposing it. Ten years later, the court revised the compensation and directed the government to pay ` 3,396 for one cent. But the government went on an appeal and the case is pending," he explained.
He added, "I wrote to the government seeking to implement the court direction. But this government did not take any steps. The higher education department has grabbed land from innocent farmers, and it must be returned to them if the government cannot implement the court's order. If the government fails to do this, we would file a land grab case against the higher education department."
"During the campaign for assembly elections, DMK chief MK Stalin said compensation would be given to farmers, but he has forgotten his word," the MP said. According to sources, the state government has so far given `42 core to farmers as compensation.
Accompanied by their family members and cadre of Left parties, the farmers blocked the gate and raised slogans against the government for failing to pay compensation as directed by the court. Over 100 police personnel were deployed to stop farmers from entering the campus. Meantime, the district administration invited them for negotiations following which they dispersed.
Hunger strike opposing Collector
A group of farmers staged a hunger strike demanding the replacement of district Collector G S Sameeran and alleged that he did not show interest in addressing issues raised by them at the grievances redress meetings. "The collector is not showing interest in addressing the farmers' grievance properly, he should be replaced from the post. To take up the issue to knowledge of the government, we staged the hunger strike," a farmer said.