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Goondas Act not to be slapped on protesting farmers: Stalin
Earlier, leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) warned of statewide protests if the cases are not dropped
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Friday night announced that the Goondas Act invoked against six farmers in Tiruvannamalai district will be revoked, a move that came hours after the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed the DMK government for detaining the farmers protesting against land acquisition under the Act.
Farmers have been opposing a proposed acquisition of 3,300 acres of agricultural wetlands across nine villages by SIPCOT (State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited, an arm of the government which promotes investments) to expand its unit in Tiruvannamalai. Six farmers were detained under the Goondas Act while 14 other farmers were arrested for staging the protest.
Stalin said his government decided to revoke the Goondas Act after the families of the affected farmers submitted a petition to minister for public works E V Velu stating that they will “not protest against government projects without reason” and sought their release.
Stalin sought to explain that the project to expand SIPCOT was being done to provide more employment opportunities for the locals but “based on the families’ request, the Goondas Act, invoked by the district collector is being withdrawn.”
Earlier, the AIADMK and the BJP demanded that the Tamil Nadu government revoke the detention of six farmers under the Goondas Act for protesting against land acquisition for an industrial project.
Leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) warned of statewide protests if the cases are not dropped. “The government should immediately withdraw the Goondas Act slapped on the seven farmers and withdraw all cases filed against them. Otherwise the AIADMK will go on a protest,” EPS said in a statement. “The DMK does not know how to fulfil the demands of the farmers.. I urge them to stop the politics of violence. The DMK government uses the police force to take revenge on political opponents and suppress protests,” he said.
AIADMK’s Tiruvannamalai district unit had held a protest on October 4.
BJP state president K Annamalai had earlier said that the party would offer legal support to the families of the detainees.
“Hundreds of farmers have been protesting for more than 100 days against the land acquisition proposal. In the wee hours on November 4, police barged into the houses of farmers, arrested 20 of them based on an FIR filed in August. They were later remanded to judicial custody,” said activist Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam.
As many as 14 activists, including Aruna Roy, had appealed to chief minister M K Stalin on Tuesday to immediately release farmers arrested in Tamil Nadu. Roy is the president of the National Federation of Indian Women and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
On November 15, Tiruvannamalai district collector B Murugesh issued a detention order identifying seven of the farmers to be booked under the Goondas Act in Tamil Nadu.
A video has been circulating on social media of one of the wives of the farmers alleging that they were forced to sign these detention orders. Annamalai shared the video on X and said, “It is becoming increasingly evident from the family of the arrested farmers that the DMK govt has wilfully meted out this atrocity of imposing the Goondas Act on the hard-working farmers of our state for protesting against the government’s decision to acquire their agricultural lands.”
