VEDARANYAM: Agrarian distress has yet again reared its head, with another farmer of Ayakkaranpulam village near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district collapsing in his field in the wake of crop failure this year due to lack of adequate water in Cauvery for irrigation.
Police said the farmer Natarajan (59), who went to his field, saw the ‘samba’ paddy crop almost destroyed for want of water and swooned there seeing the state of the crop. He was admitted to the Government Medical College hospital in Tiruvarur, where he died on Thursday morning, police said. With this, as many as 37 farmers, including 31 from the Cauvery delta region, have so far died due to shock or have allegedly committed suicide following their crops withering away this year.
The Vedaranyam police are investigating. Meanwhile, Puliyur Nagarajan, state president of the Tamil Maanila Congress farmers’ wing urged the Central and State Governments to take steps to avert such deaths of farmers in the Cauvery delta region.
