Withdraw new Tamil Nadu contract farming law: R Mutharasan

Thanjavur: The state secretary of CPI, R.Mutharasan has appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to withdraw the Tamil Nadu state contract farming and services (promotion and facilitation) Act to which the President of India gave his assent recently.

He told presspersons here on Friday that the contract farming system envisaged in the Act will spell doom for farmers of Tamil Nadu.

It is only to shirk its responsibility, the state governrment has brought this act. Corporate companies will decide as which crop has to be raised by farmers, what kind of livestock they should rear under the act. It will also give the power to fix prices also in the hands of corporates.

“Recommendation of the National Agriculture Commission headed by Dr M. S. Swaminathan that the price of the produce should be fixed at expenditure cost plus 50 per cent of that will not be implemented,” feared Mutharasan.
He also criticised the state government for not making preparations for helping farmers who are buoyed by the onset of Northeast monsoon and ready to take up cultivation.

But  urea is not available adequately for farmers to apply for the crops. Government should ensure availability of the fertiliser. Crop insurance relief should be paid to farmers. Though the relief amount has come to banks, they are either adjusted for the old loans taken or deposited under other heads, he complained.

“For Deepavali, government stocked liquor bottles in Tasmac 15 days before for sale. But it has not made any preparation to help farmers with fertilisers,” he said.  

He said that law and order situation in Tamil Nadu is not “good” as claimed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapadi K.Palaniswami. Crimes, murders, burglaries are on the increase and he cited the examples of jewellery theft at Tiruchy.

He appealed to the state government to conduct the local body polls as hinted by it. “The election should be held democratically and in a fair manner. Our secular alliance will face the election and win” he said.

He said that saffronisation of Tiruvalluvar is going on and regretted that no one has been arrested so far after the desecration of his statue at Pillaiyarpatti near Thanjavur.

“BJP is playing a duel role in this. It was decided when Akilesh Yadav was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh to install a Tiruvalluvar statue in UP. But BJP government there had not shown any interest now in installing it,” Mutharasan said.