RDO inquiry into illegal quarrying complaint on February 24 following farmer’s 11 petitions

The Tirunelveli Revenue Divisional Officer, following a farmer’s 11 petitions, will conduct an inquiry on Tuesday (February 24) into the alleged illegal mining and encroachments made along the wild streams carrying water to the Sethurayanpudur tank, District Collector R. Sukumar has said.

He was responding to a query raised by a farmer in the farmers’ grievances redressal meeting held at the Collectorate on Friday.

According to agriculturist Arumugam of Sethurayanpudur near Manur said a private stone quarry firm, which had been given permission for mining stones near Sethurayanpudur, had illegally encroached upon the wild streams bringing water to Sethurayanpudurkulam, a rain-fed irrigation tank. Besides mining stones beyond the permissible level in the permitted area, the firm was also quarrying stones from adjoining areas, including the now dry wild streams in violation of the permission granted.

“Due to this man-made obstruction and catastrophe caused to the wild streams with explosives, the rainwater coming to the Sethurayanpudur tank had stopped completely for the past few years.”

“More than 20,000 tonnes of stones is being taken every day from this quarry and transported in heavy trucks, which badly damageS the rural roads. I have submitted 11 petitions seeking cancellation of the stone quarry permit given to this firm for this violation. However, all the petitions have been trashed and the farmers’ ordeals continue as we are solely depending on the groundwater for irrigation. The Collector should inspect the spot to assess the violations and the encroachments and take appropriate action,” Mr. Arumugam prayed.

Replying, Dr. Sukumar announced that the RDO, Tirunelveli, would hold the inquiry into this issue at the RDO’s Office on the Collectorate premises on Tuesday (February 24). “You should participate without fail in the inquiry as a petitioner and present your case,” the Collector said and Mr. Arumugam agreed to it.

Farmer and State vice-president of Tamil Nadu Vivasaayigal Sangam P. Perumbadaiyar from Thirukkurungudi said banana, especially the premium ‘nenthiran’ banana variety, was being auctioned for a throwaway price as the price had crashed from ₹ 40 a kg in the past to ₹ 17 a kg now even as this variety raised on a few hundred acres in the Thirukkurungudi – Cheranmahadevi belt was ready for harvest.

“The Tamil Nadu Government, besides operationalising the banana auction centre at Kalakkad, should fix minimum support price for banana to save the growers, who are battling the nature’s fury like gale and the wild boars causing unimaginable destruction to standing crops. Moreover, these crop-raiding wild animals also attack the farmers as they try to chase them away from their ranches. Since the forest department is in no mood to hunt down the wild boars invading the fields, the farmers have decided to support the political party that assures to hunt down the wild boars and remove them from the list of Scheduled Wild Animals,” Mr. Perumbadaiyar said.

Agriculturist D. Abraham of Kanarpatti near Manur appealed to the government to give the monthly assistance for the farmers above the age of 60 and cent per cent grant for erecting goat and sheep pen.

He also pointedout the non-disbursal of insurance benefits to the black gram loss suffered by the farmers of Manur taluk.

When farmer Murugan of Therkkupatti complained about non-disbursal of crop and cattle loans by the Ukkirankottai Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society, the Collector instructed Tirunelveli Revenue Divisional Officer to inquire into the complaint.

Dr. Sukumar said that agricultural crops on 56,200.71 hectare and horticultural crops on 10,626.51 hecatare had been cultivated since January during the current fiscal. The district administration had opened direct paddy procurement centres at 73 places for buying the paddy raised during the ‘pisanam’ season. Government orders had been obtained for giving compensation of ₹12.79 lakh for paddy and ₹13.62 lakh for horticultural crops damaged by unseasonal downpour.

The Collector appealed to the agriculturists to insure their crops by paying the prescribed premium before the deadline.

District Revenue Officer M. Durai, Deputy Director of Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve’s Ambasamudram Division Srikant, Joint Director of Agriculture Poovannan, District Forest Officer Ilango and others participated in the meeting.