Seeking crop loan waiver for all farmers who have availed agricultural loans from the cooperative societies, a group of agriculturists submitted petition to District Collector Anand Mohan during the weekly grievances redress meeting held at the Collectorate on Monday.

Led by farmer D. Abraham, district secretary of the Coordination Committee of Tamil Nadu All Farmers’ Associations, the petitioners said the agriculturists had availed loans from the cooperative societies for cultivating paddy during the last ‘pisanam’ paddy season by pledging either their land documents or the jewels. However, due to poor northeast monsoon last year and skyrocketing chemical fertilizer prices, the farmers did not have bumper harvest during the last ‘pisanam’ season, leaving the farmers in debt trap.

Hence, the Tamil Nadu government, considering the loss incurred by the agriculturists, should waive the crop loans availed from the cooperative societies, the petitioners said.

The farmers also appealed to the Union Government to take effective steps for reducing the fertilizer price, which had reached unprecedented and unbearable levels.

“The fertilizer price has increased 200%... However, the price of farm produces has not increased and hence farming is still a gambling and unprofitable venture. Hence, the government should take steps to reduce pesticide and fertilizer prices,” Mr. Abraham said.

Members of Thamizhaga Makkal Jananayaka Katchi submitted a petition appealing to the district administration to clean the unused land in Melapalayam and upgrade it into a playground with appropriate sports facilities so that the students of Quaid-E-Millet Higher Secondary School in the same area could use it as their playground.

In the petition submitted by the party members, they said the unused ground near the school could be upgraded with sports infrastructure and allow the students of Quaid-E-Millet Higher Secondary School to use it so that the unused ground could be utilised for the right purpose instead of allowing outsiders to use it as their own property for storing construction materials for commercial purpose, they said.

Residents of MKM Bhanu Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association submitted a petition seeking roads, drinking water, street lights, bus connectivity etc. for their colony. They said the MKM Bhanu Nagar with 220 residential plots under the Palayam Chettikulam near Palayamkottai had been housing more than 60 families and construction of nearly 50 more houses was going on in this approved residential plots layout.

Since this residential colony was yet to be connected by proper roads from the nearby main roads, the residents, especially the students going for schools everyday, were suffering a lot in taking their school bus that is operated up to the nearby main road. The drinking water connection had not been given to all the houses and the ‘unfortunate lot’ had to shell out huge money for buying packaged drinking water.

The street light poles should be installed for about 200 meters from Palayam Chettikulam to MKB Bhanu Nagar to ensure the safety of the residents returning home in the night. A high-mast light should also be installed at the ‘V’ Junction in the Naduvaikurichi – Burkit Managar intersection as this point is being used by the drunkards after the dusk, they said.