New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday mourned the death of a farmer who protested against the GAIL pipeline project in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu.
The CM also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund to the bereaved family.
In a statement, Chief Minister Stalin said that the DMK government is following the footsteps of former Chief Minister and party patriarch late M Karunanidhi, whose policy towards farmers was ‘a friend in need’.
Notably, in a protest against the GAIL project, C. Ganesan had died by suicide by hanging himself from a tree at his farmland on Wednesday.
The farmers have been protesting against the proposed pipeline project of GAIL in the Kariappanahalli hamlet. As a mark of their agitation, the farmers blocked the Dharmapuri- Hoggenackal highway with the body of the deceased farmer for nearly six hours.
According to the agitating farmers, the GAIL officials, had jointly with the police and revenue officials conducted surveys in farmlands that they own and were taking photographs of it.
Ganesan’s wife C. Chinnavel, speaking to news agency IANS, said that her husband was upset by the surveys that were being carried out in their farmlands and the adjacent farmlands. This was the only reason for his suicide, she said, adding that the family was in dire situation after his demise.
Meanwhile, former MLA of the CPI-M, C Dillibabu said that the Chief Minister must increase the solatium amount to Rs 15 lakh considering that Ganesan was the only breadwinner of the family.