Farmers occupying NLC land will be granted time till September 15 to harvest standing crops, TN govt. tells Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu government tells Madras High Court that it is willing to grant time till September 15 for farmers to harvest the standing crops they had raised on lands acquired by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation over a decade ago for its expansion activities

The State government on Monday told the Madras High Court that it was willing to grant time till September 15 for farmers to harvest the standing crops they had raised on lands acquired by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) over a decade ago for its expansion activities, and that the farmers, in turn, should agree to hand over the lands after the moratorium period without creating trouble.

The NLC, on its part, assured the court that it was willing to pay compensation for the standing crops that were cleared using earthmovers for the diversion of the Upper Paravanar canal in Valayamadevi near Chidambaram in order to prevent the flooding of the mines and adjacent lands during the monsoon. It said the compensation would be deposited with the Cuddalore Collector.

The submissions were made before Justice S.M. Subramaniam, who granted a lunch motion to hear an urgent writ petition moved by one of the affected farmers, V. Murugan of Valayamadevi Melpathi village. Petitioner’s counsel K. Balu urged the court to restrain NLC from disturbing the standing crops until harvest, and also return the acquired lands to the farmers since they had not been used for the intended purpose even after 16 years.

However, Additional Advocate-General (AAG) J. Ravindran told the court that there was no question of returning the lands to the farmers since they were required for power generation by NLC. He said the State government had been suffering a loss of around ₹320 crore a month since September 2022 due to a shortage of electricity generation by NLC because of the unavailability of sufficient lignite from the existing mines.

He recalled that the State government had acquired large tracts of land in 2007 for the expansion of NLC on payment of compensation over and above the guideline value, and that those lands were taken possession of in December 2012. Yet, the farmers continued cultivating crops there, and hence, they could, at best, be categorised only as ‘trespassers’ and nothing more, the AAG argued.

The law officer accused the PMK of “playing politics” with the issue by instigating the farmers, who were otherwise willing to hand over the lands peacefully. At this point, Mr. Balu joined issue with the AAG by asking: “Is that why you deployed 2,000 police officers to take possession of the fertile lands?”

Stating that the government knew how to protect the farmers, the AAG asked the court to prevent the politicisation of the issue.