Chennai: PMK on Wednesday released a shadow agricultural budget stressing on a committee under the state law minister to supervise the Cauvery dispute case in the Supreme Court and promises of free fertilizers and fair procurement prices.
Releasing the budget, party founder S. Ramadoss said it was prepared with the objective of changing Tamil Nadu into a state without suicides of farmers and asserted that the entire delta districts would be declared as agriculture zone and no industrial projects including extraction of natural gas would be allowed.
The government would take steps for sugarcane farmers to get back their arrears in sugar mills, besides promising waiver of loans and compensation of Rs 25,000 per acre for farmers affected by drought.
The PMK said it would cancel the permission for laying gas pipelines for a distance of 1,175 kilometres in Tamil Nadu in all the four routes.
It promised steps to modernise agriculture through modern machines and scientific farming to increase cultivation and said agriculture would be transformed into an industry. In the shadow budget, the PMK proposed to increase the allotment for agriculture to '17,786 crores and said agriculture zones would be set up in district to use the agricultural products in the particular area.
It promised four agricultural universities in the state and four agricultural colleges in every district, besides a paddy technology park in Thanjavur. Greens would be cultivated on the banks of rivers and they would be packed and sold like milk, it said and assured to bring a special act to eradicate seemai karuvela trees by using the modern methods taken up by Brazil and Australia.
The party proposed a special law which would make permission from forest department mandatory for cutting palm trees and schemes would be implemented to increase its cultivation.
It said polishing of rice would be regulated to avoid loss of nutrients and promised a coconut technology park and separate markets to sell organic agricultural products.
