TIRUVANNAMALAI: Farmers in Melma village, Tiruvannamalai, have demanded that the state government completely withdraw its proposal to acquire 3,174 acres of land for the Phase 3 Sipcot industrial park in Cheyyar. The demand comes after the state on Friday withdrew its September 1 notification for the acquisition of 22.16 hectares (approximately 54.76 acres) of land for the project.
On September 1, the commissioner of land acquisition issued a notification to acquire 22.16 hectares of land in Unit 1, Block 2 of Melma village, under Section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Industrial Purposes Act. The notification was published in Tamil Nadu Government Gazette No. 369. Following stiff opposition from Melma farmers on Friday and the subsequent intervention of PWD Minister Aadhav Arjuna, the notification, numbered VI(1)/443(d-6)/2026, was withdrawn following a recommendation from the Tiruvannamalai district collector.
The notification was published roughly a week after Minister Aadhav Arjuna stated in the Assembly on August 25 that TVK's first agenda was to work for the welfare of farmers. Addressing the years-long protest by Melma farmers, he said in the Assembly, "We've told the district collector that the farmers' land should not be acquired. We won't arrest the farmers, and we won't acquire their land."
According to the farmers, the initial steps for the SIPCOT Phase 3 expansion were taken during the AIADMK rule between 2016 and 2021. The project was later proposed for execution in 2022 and announced by the DMK government in 2023. Thousands of farmers from 11 panchayats, including Melma, Narmapallam, Kurumbur, Thethurai, Nedungal, Athi, Vada Alapirandan, Veerapakkam, and Elaneerkundram, staged a sit-in protest for 970 days straight, until the 2026 Assembly election. The farmers said that 100 acres had previously been acquired from private real estate owners in Vada Alapirandan for the phase 3 expansion of the Sipcot industrial park.
Arul Arumugam, a farmer and a key advisor to the protest against Sipcot expansion, said that government documents classify the land as dryland (punjai), but farmers have been cultivating it effectively for many years through river irrigation. He claimed, "Almost all the land parcels proposed for the acquisition are wetland (nanjai), where farmers cultivate paddy and sugarcane," demanding that the government completely withdraw the land acquisition proposal. Arumugam was one among the farmers arrested for organising the protest against the industrial project. In 2023, of the 20 people remanded for protests, seven, including Arumugam, were booked under the Goondas Act. The other 19 were later granted bail, but Arumugam was kept in judicial custody for 68 days in Palayamkottai Jail before being released.
Another protester, Chandran, said that around 23 acres of land acquired during phase 1 continues to remain unused; similarly, around 800 to 100 acres of land acquired during the subsequent phase remain unutilised. "We want the complete withdrawal of the 3,174 acres, not just the 22.16 hectares," he said.
The Cheyyar SIPCOT, which caters primarily to footwear and general industries, was established in two phases -- phase 1 in 2006 and phase 2 in 2015. It currently spans 2,936.57 acres and hosts around 27 industrial units.
When TNIE reached out to a senior revenue official from the district regarding the September 1 notification, he said a notification from 2023 was "mistakenly" published in the 2026 gazette. Further, he said that the land classification registered with the government is definitive, and declined to comment on the farmers' claims on the same.
