TIRUVARUR: Farmers owing allegiance to the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Farmers’ Association on Tuesday staged a day-long hunger strike in Mannargudi demanding that the Centre issue a notification exempting three blocks in the delta districts from coal mining. The protests, held near the Periyar statue in Mannargudi was led by P R Pandian, general secretary. Around 500 farmers from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagappattinam participated.
Pandian said that after the Union Coal Ministry issued a tender notification for three coal blocks at Vadasseri Block, East of Sethiathoppu Block and Michaelpatti, farmers burnt the notification at Ullikkottai in April.
The notification was against the law that declared the Cauvery delta as a protected agriculture zone. Even as farmers were protesting and the state government brought a resolution in the Assembly, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on April 6 tweeted that the three blocks will be excluded from auction.
However, the blocks have not been excluded from the tender documents so far, and no official notification issued by the ministry, Pandian said. Hence he called upon the Centre to issue a notification and also urged the state government to press the matter.
Pandian also demanded the withdrawal of the Tamil Nadu Land Consolidation bill which, he alleged, would pave the way for corporates to take over vast swathes of lands and water bodies thereby rendering farmers as internal refugees, and added that the association would continue its protests if the government failed to withdraw the bill.