KANNIYAKUMARI: Farmers complain that police personnel at some parts of the district stop them while transporting silt excavated from waterbodies and foist cases on them despite the state government granting them permission to do so.
A Vins Anto, Kodayar irrigation system project committee chairman, pointed out to TNIE on Tuesday that the state government has permitted farmers to draw 'vandal mann' (silt) from waterbodies across the state for agricultural use.
Accordingly, the district administration has permitted the use of silt excavated from more than 900 tanks in the district. After applying for permission from the respective tahsildar to draw it, farmers approach the executive engineer of the water resources department for trip pass to ferry the silt drawn from tanks and other waterbodies under the latter's control.
For drawing silt from waterbodies under the town panchayats and village panchayats, the farmers have to approach the respective town panchayat executive officer and the respective BDO.
While the police have no role in the process, they slap hefty fines on vehicles transporting the silt in some places, stating that the vehicles were violating traffic rules or were overloaded, farmers said. As some police personnel allegedly force the vehicle drivers to cough up money, we are forced to spend more money on transporting the sand to our lands, they added.
While Collector R Alagumeena and SP R Stalin are generally supportive of farmers, some police personnel are disturbing us, Anto said.
O Homer Lal, an advocate, alleged that some police personnel are making things hard for farmers.
Denying the allegation, the SP said that action is taken only based on public complaints that the silt drawn from such waterbodies is being taken for commercial use. The police are taking action only against such vehicles transporting sand for commercial purposes and against overloaded ones in order to prevent accidents.