CHENNAI: A farmer from Vidarbha and a farmer from Edappadi in Salem district on Sunday electrified an election rally here for the AIADMK-BJP alliance for the April 18 Lok Sabha polls, declaring they had the master key to resolve key farmers issues.
“I come from Vidarbha in Maharashtra where 10,000 farmers have committed suicide; but there we have now introduced new schemes to augment incomes for farmers like producing ethanol from sugarcane which in turn is used to generate electricity through introduction of new technologies,” senior BJP leader and union minister Nithin Gadkari said, adding, “I know who crucial water is for agriculture.”
Apart from various types of infrastructure support projects that the Centre had taken up including multi-lane highways to strengthen links with agriculture, Gadkari said several states faced water crisis and the proposed Godavari-Cauvery link was the best bet to augment water resources for Andhra and Tamil Nadu. A long-term solution to the water crisis in Tamil Nadu and for its farmers could be found if the Godavari-Cauvery river linkage could be done. The project would cost Rs.60,000 crore, and work on preparing a DPR was already on, he said.
Such schemes could be taken forward if the BJP-AIADMK alliance was voted to power in the Centre, said Gadkari. He said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was on the dais along with the PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss, was also very keen to implement the ‘Godavari-Cauvery link’ project.
Addressing the rally, Mr. Palaniswami on his part, endorsed Gadkari’s grand river linking scheme and said the Godavari-Cauvery linkage could render the entire arid western Tamil Nadu, including Salem district, green in one go. Listing various projects being implemented for Salem district by the AIADMK government including the underground drainage for the steel town, Mecherry-Nangavalli water supply scheme, a massive Rs.900 crore outlay envisaging a bunch of schemes for Salem town under the ‘Smart City Project’, and an ambitious ‘bus port’ project for Salem among others, Palanisamy castigated DMK president Stalin for criticizing him for non-performance. “My political life will begin only after the elections,” he retorted to Stalin’s jibe that this election would end EPS’ political career.
Even as Dr Ramadoss castigated the Congress for not eradicating poverty in the country, a group of farmers staged a black-flag agitation here protesting against Nithin Gadkari’s latest remarks on the Salem-Chennai Expressway project.
