Farmers in delta region stage protest against power cuts

TRICHY: Farmers in the delta region comprising Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts on Tuesday held a demonstration in front of the Thanjavur railway station to highlight their sufferings due to the unscheduled power cuts. The farmers said that they are living even without drinking water because of power crisis.
About 500 farmers carrying uprooted sugarcanes and green leaves shouted slogans seeking the government to generate more power, to get the Kudankulam nuclear plant commissioned without further loss of time and to maintain power supply for 20 hours a day.
Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam (M R Sivasamy), Thanjavur president R Sukumaran told TOI that the delta farmers got only three hours of power supply a day and the crux of the problem was that the three hour supply was not on a regular schedule. In some of the rural belts, the residents went without drinking water, because there was no power supply to pump the water to the overhead tanks, Sukumaran said.
Meanwhile, in Trichy, the Congress staged a protest in the Central Bus Stand demanding the early commissioning of the Kudanakulam project to tide over the present power crisis in the state.
Attended by city Congress president Jerome Arockiaraj and two former mayors of Trichy, Charubala Thondaiman and S Sujatha, the protesters said that the early commissioning of the Kudankulam project was the only available remedy to all the power ills in the state and hence, the people should wholeheartedly support the venture..