AMMK General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran has urged that the announcement for a complete waiver of crop loans be made in the ongoing Assembly session itself.
In this regard, he said on his X account that media reports have stated that farmers who tried to stage a protest in front of the Chennai Secretariat, demanding a complete waiver of crop loans as per the election promise made by TVK, were forcibly arrested by the police.
While Chief Minister Joseph Vijay was speaking inside the Legislative Assembly, portraying himself as the guardian of farmers and saying that Cauvery water is our lifeline and that he has no intention whatsoever of politicizing it, outside the Assembly the farmers who were protesting democratically were suppressed and repressed by the police. This has brought to light the TVK government’s double standards on farmers’ welfare.
Farmers, who had been demanding the complete waiver of crop loans by submitting petitions to district collectors and staging protests including road blockades to draw the government's attention, have been left disappointed by the agricultural budget as well, with no announcement on crop loans. With no other means of livelihood, they have been pushed into a situation where they are forced to besiege the Secretariat itself and protest.
Therefore, I urge Chief Minister Joseph Vijay to immediately and unconditionally release all the farmers arrested by the police and to issue an announcement in the ongoing Assembly session itself for the complete waiver of farmers’ loans taken from cooperative banks, he said.
Announce full crop loan waiver in ongoing assembly session: AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran