
THOOTHUKUDI: Farmers demanded a detailed investigation into the smuggling of urea bags from cooperative societies meant for agriculture purposes, and arrest the kingpin of the illegal racket.
The Kovilpatti East police seized over 600 bags of urea weighing 27 tonnes, which were illegally hoarded at a godown in Kovilpatti SIDCO complex. In a petition, farmer Arumairaj said that huge quantities of urea bags cannot be moved illegally to a private godown without the assistance of agriculture and cooperative society officials.
However, the FIR registered against the suspect has no mention of officers involved. Hence, the police should investigate the case in detail and include officials responsible for the illegal hoarding, Arumairaj said.
Police registered FIR against APK Palaniselvam, Rajkumar, Ganesan and Valluvan. Sources said all accused except Palaniselvam were arrested as the latter had political clout.
Speaking to the media, Arumairaj said urea bags were illegally moved from cooperative societies in Pandavarmangalam, Thirku Thittamkulam, Nagampatti, Puthu Pallaneri, Ayyaneri and Kovilpatti among other areas. Cooperative societies officials are providing farmers with an inadequate number of urea bags by citing poor availability, when they have illegally diverted these subsidised bags to smugglers, he charged.
Meanwhile, a few farmers from Ottapidaram wanted compensation for crop damage caused by fall armyworm attack. Tamilar Vidiyal Katchi coordinator Sema Chandanaraj said that the armyworm had been attacking maize farms across the region. The farmers were badly affected due to crop damage. However, the district administration had not taken necessary measures to control it or given fair compensation, he said.
A section of villagers from Sirupadu, Thirumalayapuram, Kootampuli of Kumaragiri Village Panchayat urged not to annex them with Thoothukudi corporation, citing poor livelihood options for them. However, people of Kumaragiri, Soosaipandiyapuram and other areas of Kumaragiri panchayat did not oppose the move. The people of Sirupadu, Thirumalayapuram and Kootampuli wanted to carve these hamlets into a separate village panchayat and were against the proposal to merge with the corporation.