Sasikala demands relief for Delta farmers hit by rains

CHENNAI: AIADMK leader VK Sasikala on Wednesday said the farmers in Tamil Nadu's delta district farmers who have been affected by the heavy rains should receive assistance immediately.

According to a Daily Thanthi report, Sasikala said, "Why are these leaders reluctant to give compensation to the farmers, when they are willing to spend Rs 80 crores to put a pen in the sea? The government should take steps to provide immediate compensation to the farmers who had been adversely affected by the rains."

Earlier on Saturday, OPS and EPS urged the DMK government to immediately take relief measures for the farmers in the Delta region.

In a statement, Palaniswami claimed that various food grains, including paddy, which was cultivated on about two lakh acres, were damaged due to heavy rain. "In addition, the harvested food grains, which were kept to be transported to the procurement centres, have also drenched in the rains", he added.

Stating that the officials should be immediately deployed to access the damage caused by rain in the Delta region, Palaniswami demanded compensation of Rs 30,000 per acre to each farmer, affected by sudden downpour.

OPS too demands 30,000 compensation per acre

Demanding to compensate Rs 30,000 per acre each to the Delta farmers for the damaged crops, in a separate statement, Panneerselvam said: "It is the duty of the state government to provide relief for the farmers, especially during natural disasters".

Claiming that due to a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, heavy rains have occurred for the last four days in the Delta region, he said due to the downpour cultivated crops in several lakh acres were damaged due to flood. "Samba crops, which were cultivated in over 1.3 lakh acres were also damaged due to rain,” he said adding "due to damage of crops, harvest was done only in 20,000 acres".

(With inputs from Bureau)