Hundreds of farmers to file nominations from Kangeyam

Coimbatore, Mar 17 : Hundreds of farmers havedecided to file nominations from Kangeyam Assemblyconstituency in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu in theforthcoming elections.

The decision to contest the polls was taken as thedemand by farmers for releasing water from Parambikulam-Aliyar Project has fallen on deaf ears.

The farmers likened the situation to one theirpredecessors created 25 years ago in Modakurichi in Erodedistrict.

The ryots belonging to Vellakoil Branch Canal WaterProtection Committee had gone on a five-day hunger strikedemanding the release of water in January last, which waswithdrawn after meeting the Chief Minister.

Since there was no solution found, the farmers decided tofile 1,000 nominations from Kangeyam constituency and acommittee member filed his nomination on March 16, thecommittee sources said.

With over100 nominations received by the committee at least100 would file the nominations today, they said adding thatmore farmers would be filing their papers on Thursday andFriday to touch 1,000.

A similar situation arose when 1,016 farmers filed theirnominations from Modakurichi Assembly segment in 1996, takingthe total nominations to 1,033, causing a nightmare to theElection Commission leading to postponing the poll by onemonth.

The Federation of Farmers Associations had taken theinitiative to bring the attention of the government and alsothe Election Commission on their charter of demands, whichincluded electoral reforms like measures to improveagriculture.

DMKs Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan had then defeated AIADMKs RNKittusamy in the election, where 1,030 contestants lost theirdeposits, 158 candidates polling one vote each and 88candidates not polling a single vote with a 50-page book asthe ballot paper. PTI NVMNVG NVG

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