4 days ago
Tiruppur farmers put on hold decision to boycott Uzhavar Sandhais after authorities promise action against encroachers
Farmers selling their produce in Tiruppur North and Tiruppur South 'Uzhavar Sandhais' in the city limits on Friday decided to put on hold their boycott decision that was provoked by the presence of encroachers outside the markets, after talks with the authorities.
At the meeting chaired by M.P. Amith, Commissioner of Tiruppur City Municipal Corporation, and attended by officials of the Police, Highways and Agricultural Marketing departments, the farmers were assured of action for removal of encroachments in the next three days.
The grouse of the farmers was that full-time vegetable vendors hindered their business by putting up shops in encroached space along Palladam Road in front of the Tiruppur South Uzhavar Sandhai and along Perumanallur Road in front of Tiruppur North Uzhavar Sandhai.
Notices were issued to the vendors occupying the encroached space on Friday, and announcements were made over public address system instructing them to vacate over the next three days.
The farmers had decided to boycott the Uzhavar Sandhais as the presence of the vegetable vendors defied the very purpose of the scheme that envisaged reasonable returns for the farmers without the involvement of middlemen.
Since the vegetable vendors also conducted their business at the timings of Uzhavar Sandhais, the transactions of farmers were severely impacted, according to the representations made on several occasions to the authorities.
The farmers, who are worried that their livelihood is at stake, look for concerted action by the Revenue, Police, and Highways Departments and the Tiruppur City Municipal Corporation, Ramesh, State Coordinator - Uzhavar Sandhai, Tamil Nadu Farmers' Protection Association, said.
The scheme introduced by the DMK government in the past was now being weakened in its own dispensation, he rued.
In the absence of action by the authorities well before the visit of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to Tiruppur on August 11, farmers will express their dismay by scattering vegetables on the roads, Mr. Ramesh warned.
