COIMBATORE: A section of farmers in Coimbatore district petitioned collector G S Sameeran on Friday seeking the Tamil Nadu government’s intervention to stop the process initiated by the Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) department to evict them from land belonging to the Perur Pateeswarar Temple.
Around 200 farmers, who had taken land on lease, submitted petitions individually to the collector.
Vivasayigal Sangam state general secretary P Kanthasamy said the temple administration leased a part of land to the farmers under the Tamil Nadu Public Trusts (Regulation of Administration of Agricultural Lands) Act, 1961. Another portion was given to the people who worked for the temple. They too leased land to the farmers.
“However, the temple took back the land from its workers in the 1960s with the intervention of the court. The farmers, who had taken land on lease from the temple workers, then started paying the lease amount to the temple. While they gave an undertaking to the government that they were ready to pay the lease amount as per the TN Public Trust Act, the same has been pending before the government for several years now,” he said.
The HR&CE department has been serving eviction notices for several years now at various intervals by terming them encroachers. Farmers now have sensed that the department has upped the eviction measures and sought the intervention of the government. The department is planning to take the land back and lease it every year.
One of the farmers, who didn’t want to be identified, said, “Our forefathers have toiled hard to convert it into fertile land. Leasing it to others will deprive us of our livelihood. Hundreds of farmers will be affected. We are ready to pay the lease amount fixed by the revenue courts. We should be allowed to cultivate on land on a lease basis.”
The farmers petitioned the collector to close down a quarry near the agricultural land at Krishnarayapuram Thotta Salai at Chettipalayam and a crusher unit at Thekani village near Pachapalayam, as both were affecting the farming activities. They also sought to find a solution to the pest menace.
Around 200 farmers, who had taken land on lease, submitted petitions individually to the collector.
Vivasayigal Sangam state general secretary P Kanthasamy said the temple administration leased a part of land to the farmers under the Tamil Nadu Public Trusts (Regulation of Administration of Agricultural Lands) Act, 1961. Another portion was given to the people who worked for the temple. They too leased land to the farmers.
“However, the temple took back the land from its workers in the 1960s with the intervention of the court. The farmers, who had taken land on lease from the temple workers, then started paying the lease amount to the temple. While they gave an undertaking to the government that they were ready to pay the lease amount as per the TN Public Trust Act, the same has been pending before the government for several years now,” he said.
The HR&CE department has been serving eviction notices for several years now at various intervals by terming them encroachers. Farmers now have sensed that the department has upped the eviction measures and sought the intervention of the government. The department is planning to take the land back and lease it every year.
One of the farmers, who didn’t want to be identified, said, “Our forefathers have toiled hard to convert it into fertile land. Leasing it to others will deprive us of our livelihood. Hundreds of farmers will be affected. We are ready to pay the lease amount fixed by the revenue courts. We should be allowed to cultivate on land on a lease basis.”
The farmers petitioned the collector to close down a quarry near the agricultural land at Krishnarayapuram Thotta Salai at Chettipalayam and a crusher unit at Thekani village near Pachapalayam, as both were affecting the farming activities. They also sought to find a solution to the pest menace.