Save Our Farmers

Democracy at stake!

Atrocities in TamilNadu have reached a new high. 

Tiruppur is under threat to face yet another Bhopal GAS tragedy.

It’s a known fact that farmers were facing severe drought situation; we were blaming our neighboring states for the crisis and farmers suicides,

After huge struggle some farmers managed to hold their crops,

But what if our own state government is doing it? Where would the poor farmers go?

Houses were demolished; farm lands and crops ready for cultivation were razed, huge number of coconut trees were uprooted,

Oh! No! it was not a cyclone.

350 police personals were deployed in nearby villages of Tiruppur district, innocent villagers, senior citizens, women and children were thrashed by police, some people were locked inside their own houses till late night, some were thrown out of their own villages, anyone who helps them were arrested immediately, wherever you go, you could only hear people crying for help, media was not allowed to the spot.

No it was not during emergency! Or during Srilankan war.

THESE ATROCITIES HAPPENED YESTERDAY (9-Feb-2013) AT OUR VERY OWN DOLLAR CITY!

For what? GAIL GAS pipeline is being laid to facilitate supply of LNG to Bangalore industries from Cochin.

Farmers were not opposing this project; poor farmers were just begging GAIL to consider an alternate route instead of razing their livelihood.

The work was stopped for the past six months due to protest by farmers, who demanded an alternative route without affecting the agricultural lands. But lack of support from public has given the government free hand to take the law in its own hand, in spite of high court direction to state govt to not start work without consent of farmers.

Why do farmers protest? Unlike other land acquisitions here GAIL will not buy the land instead they will pay 2500 rupees (250 rs per cent) as compensation for a land worth of 1 Crore. NOT JUST THAT THE LAND OWNERS SHOULD ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THE PIPELINE; IN CASE OF ANY ACCIDENTS, THE LAND OWNERS WILL BE ARRESTED ON NON-BAILABLE WARRANT. The punishment for negligence is not less than life term.

Say if a farmer has 2 acres of land which is worth 2 Crore he will be paid only 5000 rupees, he should not dig wells, should not plant any trees, can’t build house, no constructions, only tomatoes can be cultivated, and the list keeps growing…

In a nutshell the farmers don’t own their lands anymore; they will not be allowed to do cultivation; they are just security guards without salary for the pipes laid in their land.

The pipeline not just runs through farm land but also through houses and schools.

Why GAIL is not ready to consider the alternate route of NH47? It’s expensive; they need to fight with big companies like L&T to get the permission and GAIL needs to compensate them with the repair works, of course they won’t accept 2500 rupees as compensation.

Now after huge protest in Cochin and Karnataka GAIL has agreed to lay the pipeline through the roads, in Bangalore its marked through the outer ring road.

This was possible only when common people came forward to support their farmers. They value them.

BUT IN TN, WHO CARES ANYWAY, IT’S NOT OUR PROBLEM!

WHAT WE DON’T UNDERSTAND IS, THIS IS NOT JUST FARMERS ISSUE; ANY ACCIDENTS WOULD DESTROY THE NEARBY PLACES IN HOURS!

Recent accidents of GAIL in India will say the rest.

About 10,000 GAS pipeline accidents happened in last 20 years! Now the same can happen in our backyard! What can we do?