COIMBATORE: Farmers accused the district officials of supporting a gang involved in the smuggling of subsidised urea in Coimbatore district. The allegation was raised during the Farmers' Grievance Redressal Meeting chaired by Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar at the collectorate on Friday.
Soon after the meeting began, farmers led by Tamil Nadu Farmers Association district president S Palanisamy demanded that Coimbatore be declared a drought-hit district due to the failure of the southwest monsoon and that relief be provided. He also urged that the TVK government implement its election promise of a complete agricultural loan waiver.
In a protest against the non-waiver of crop loans, the farmers wore a black turban, raised slogans condemning the state government, and staged a walkout along with other farmers. They later sat in protest at the entrance of the collectorate, demanding a complete waiver of crop loans.
Farmers S Senthilkumar, V S Kalisami, P Kandasamy and A Karthik Krishnan pointed out that around 120 tonnes of urea had been seized on July 4 from a gang that was illegally stockpiling subsidised urea, converting it into liquid form and attempting to smuggle it to Kerala.
"The farmers themselves had caught the gang and handed them over to officials. However, the key accused in the case have not been arrested so far, and no cases have been registered against anyone," they said. The farmers alleged that officials were acting in support of the urea smuggling gang.
"In other similar cases also, no action was taken against the offenders. The same situation continues now. If this goes on, the gang will continue its activities without any fear of the law, and farmers will be forced to suffer without access to subsidised urea," said V S Kalisami.
Responding to the issues, the collector said direct inspections had been conducted at four companies regarding the source of the urea.
"An end-to-end monitoring system to track the movement of urea from origin to destination will be introduced, and a recommendation in this regard had already been sent to the government. Police were investigating the smuggling case, and a charge sheet would be filed soon," he added.
