Compensate farmers for rain damage: EPS

Chennai: The AIADMK joint coordinator, in a statement, alleged that during the last 11 months there were several irregularities in procuring paddy from the farmers.

EPS claimed that despite MET Department warning of heavy rains during the last 10 days, the state government has not taken any precautionary measures to protect the paddy from the downpour.

“Therefore, about 70,000 tonnes of paddy bags, which were stored in open places at the Direct Procurement Centres, especially in Mayiladuthurai district, were totally drenched,” he alleged.

“As the paddy was not stored in safe places, the government had lost crores of rupees, which was people’s tax money,” he said adding, “therefore, steps have to be taken to immediately shift the procured paddy to godown.”

He also alleged that there were complaints that several farmers, who have harvested paddy, cannot supply it to the government procurement centers due Agriculture Department’s lethargic approach in preparing the exact quantity of harvested data.

Collect details on damaged crops

Palaniswami said despite his request in the Assembly that the state government should take steps to collect damaged crop data following heavy rain in December last year, till now, it was not gathered in many places.

Palaniswami said during the last 10 days, there were heavy rains in Tirupur district where cultivated betel leaves in about 50 acres were destroyed. He said, “As it was also raining in several places in Tamil Nadu, the state government should take immediate steps to identify damaged crops and provide compensation accordingly to the farmers,” he added.