Farmers staged a silent protest by wearing lack badges during the farmers’ grievance redress meeting held here on Thursday to highlight issues like unfulfilled crop loan waivers, water mismanagement, and payment delays for government-procured paddy.

The large contingent of farmers who arrived wearing black badges on their shirts condemned the State administration for failing to honour its political commitments.

“In accordance with the election promise of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, the cooperative crop loans of farmers should be completely waived,” said a farmer Thirupathi.

Pon. Manikandan, a farmer, brought up critical engineering flaws in local water distribution. He argued that under the 58-village canal scheme, a vital 27 km canal needs urgent widening and heightening to handle a flow of 316 cusecs of water.

Instead, Mr. Manikandan alleged that authorities were actively ‘wasting funds’ by spending ₹8 crore to excavate silt from the Keeripatti tank and renovate its right bank canal - a section he claimed was already in perfectly good condition.

He demanded the funds be diverted to neglected branch canals and the Paraipatti tank check dam to maximize storage capacity.

Collector Nishant Krishna issued a direction to the officials to stop the work of excavating silt from the Keeripatti tank. He instructed them to hold a meeting under the leadership of Sub-Collector to take a decision.

Farmer Parthasarathy revealed that several crores of rupees owed to farmers for paddy procured through the National Cooperation Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) remain completely unpaid, leaving families in deep financial distress.

Other farmers, including Manavalakannan and Seetharaman, pointed out that the government’s Direct Procurement Centres (DPCs) for paddy were opened far too late this season.

Mr. Seetharaman further alleged that various irregularities and corruption continue to plague these centres unchecked.

The Collector announced that a dedicated, exclusive grievance meeting would be held on July 10 to entirely focus on and redress systemic issues related to government paddy procurement.

A farmer named Raman pointed out a crippling shortage at the Vikramangalam Powerhouse.

“While 16 wiremen used to service the area, the workforce dwindled to just one—who officially retired yesterday, leaving the facility effectively unstaffed. District Revenue Officer promised immediate relief by transferring wiremen from neighboring Chekkanurani,” he recalled.