Seek government help to solve cane grower woes

VELLORE: Ryots from the district have urged the district administration to take the problems faced by sugarcane growers to the notice of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.Kannaiyanaidu, president of Vellore District Farmers Association, urged the District Revenue Officer (DRO) A Sundaravalli, who chaired the monthly farmers’s grievance day meeting held at the Collectorate here on Friday, to take up the problems faced by cane growers in the district with the State Government for an early and positive solution. Pointing out that the growers have been losing money invested in raising the sugarcane because of the ongoing strike, he said that  canes raised in several acres have crossed the cutting period and were becoming dry. As a result farmers may either not get good returns for their investment or suffer severe loss.“The district administration should take the issue to the notice of CM to end the strike and the problems of farmers,” he appealed.C K Dhanapal, district secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, while complaining that the field officers attached to Cooperative Sugar Mills in Tirupattur, Ambur and Vellore and lorry drivers, who were engaged in transporting the sugarcanes, were demanding a bribe of `1000 to `1,500, sought action against those who demand bribe from farmers for transporting their produces.Lamenting that the officials of electricity board in Katpadi area had failed to repair the transformers in Solamur panchayat and Ponnai in time, he said, “The electricity board should repair the transformers from their own fund. But the EB officials are collecting thousands of rupees from farmers here to repair the transformers and pocketed it.”Farmers also urged the district administration to take action against illegal sand mining and indiscriminate discharge of effluents from factories into water bodies in Vaniyambadi.