Tiruvarur farmers stage walkout against hydrocarbon projects

The first farmers’ grievance meet for the year in the district was presided over by Collector T Anand and soon the meeting commenced, the farmers raised slogans against the hydrocarbon projects being implemented in the Cauvery delta region.

They slammed the Centre for waiving EIA for hydrocarbon projects and exempting the public hearing. They demanded to declare the Delta as a protected agricultural zone and walked out of the meeting.

Subsequently, they staged a protest on the Collectorate premises and demanded the state government to initiate action to prevent the anti-people projects in the Cauvery delta region. They urged the state government to keep up the words of the Chief Minister who promised the farmers not to allow the hydrocarbon project in the state.

Masilamani, the state joint secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, who led the protest, said that the Centre which had already granted permission for several wells and the present order of waiving the EIA and public hearing for hydrocarbon project is a heavy blow to the farmers who are dependent only on agriculture.

He said, due to the project implementation, the groundwater level had already depleted and the permission to more number of such extraction wells would certainly turn the fertile Cauvery delta into a desert.