Farmers oppose registration of sugarcane from private mills in Alanganallur cooperative mill

Farmers oppose sugarcane registration at National Cooperative Sugar Mills, demand action against officials; road widening and crop compensation also discussed.

Opposing registration of sugarcane from private sugar mills at National Cooperative Sugar Mills in Alanganallur, farmers demanded the Collector M.S. Sangeetha to take action against the officials who are involved in the registration. 

At the farmers’ grievance redress meeting here on Friday, N. Palanisamy, State president, Tamil Nadu Sugarcane Farmers Association, said that private sugar mills from Sivaganga and Theni are not authorised to register sugarcane in the Alanganallur cooperative mills which is defunct anyway.  

While farmers in Madurai are not allowed to register their sugarcane for processing, it was not right for private mills to get their sugarcane registered there. This raises suspicion that it was a move by the private mills to make the cooperative sugar mill sick, he said.  

Ms. Sangeetha said initiating action against the officials was not under the ambit. But relevant Acts would be checked to decide on that.  

Representatives of Vaigai Tirumangalam Main Canal Water Users Association demanded widening of the eight-km stretch of Chellampatti-Usilampatti-Vickramangalam road . As the road was under panchayat union control, no upgradation work such as widening could not be done, said M.P. Raman, its president.  

Since it connects many villages such as Kodikulam, Mudhalaikulam, Kovilankulam, Earavarpatti, Sakkarapanayakkanur, Ayyanarkulam, etc., thousands of working people, school and college students, using buses, cars and tractors use this road. As the demand for widening the road has not been fulfilled for several years, the road users on the narrow road are struggling to reach the destination at the right times, Mr. Raman added.  

Another demand raised by him was to provide compensation for farmers who lost their crop to the recent unseasonal rains. Farmers in Chellampatti, Usilampatti, Sedapatti, Vadipatti, Alanganallur and Tirumangalam have spent at least ₹45,000 per acre for raising their crop.