The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Farmers’ association plans demonstration against move to acquire farm lands

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Sunday, Jun 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Farmers’ association plans demonstration against move to acquire farm lands

Staff Reporter

Coimbatore: The Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangham has planned a demonstration in front of Red Cross Society Buildings on Huzur Road on June 10 in protest against the move to acquire agricultural lands for the proposed Coimbatore – Mettupalayam bypass road.

In a release, Sangham president M.R. Sivasamy said that acquisition of lands for the proposed road would result in over 4,000 acres of agricultural lands being taken over. This would translate into the agricultural production coming down and the loss would be in terms of one lakh bags of rice or 24,000 tonnes of vegetables or two lakh tonnes of sugarcane.

Though bypass roads are meant for development of infrastructure and economy, it was happening at the cost of agricultural production. Hence to avoid such a situation, Mr. Sivasamy suggested that the existing Mettupalayam Road could be converted into a four-lane road to accommodate the growing vehicular traffic or else a bypass road could be planned making use of the waste land.

The distance between Coimbatore and Mettupalayam on the existing route is 36 km whereas the bypass road would actually make it 60 km and such a circuitous travel would have to be undertaken when the prices of petrol and diesel were skyrocketing. Considering the distance, fuel consumption and time required for travel, vehicle users would prefer to use the existing road.

Hence, it would be wise and advisable to widen the existing Mettupalayam road into a four-lane stretch. To ensure public transportation infrastructure, there could be an electric train service between Coimbatore and Mettupalayam. Only these measures could hammer out a long-term solution.

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