The Hindu Business Line : Tamil Nadu’s rural voters dig up many woes

The key contestants
THENI: Mr J. M. Aaron Rashid – Congress (I), Mr Thanga Tamilselvan – AIADMK
DINDIGUL: Mr N. S. V. Chitthan – Congress (I), Mr P. Baalasubramani – AIADMK
MADURAI: Mr M. K. Alagiri – DMK and Mr P. Mohan – CPI (M).

If the farms of Sholavandan in Theni Parliamentary constituency face a shortage of workers (left), it is because most people flock to take up work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. — N. Ramakrishnan

N. Ramakrishnan

Madurai: The sun is beating down mercilessly. A group of women and men is working with crowbars and shovels, deepening an irrigation canal. Balamurugan, who drives a tractor in a nearby field, tells the group that the person with him is a journalist in an English language newspaper in Chennai and that he would like to talk to them about the project.

Most of the workers — a majority of them are women — stop their work and start talking about their problems. They have to be reminded not to speak all at the same time. Then, Ponnuthayee, who says she is 50 years old, comes up with a litany of their complaints. The villagers numbering about 150 are from Melnachikulam, Kilnachikulam and Karuttupatti in Sholavandan in the Theni Parliamentary constituency and are working to earn their day’s wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a UPA Government programme to provide 100 days of employment a year at Rs 80 a day.

But Ponnuthayee says that she and other villagers get only Rs 63-64 a day. When you tell them that they will get Rs 80 only if they complete the target set for each of them, Karupayee, another villager, says any one can come and measure the quantity of earth they have dug out. “You will find that we are not short by even this much,” she says, holding a fistful of earth.

The day before, while following Mr P. Chidambaram, Union Home Minister and Congress (I) candidate for Sivaganga Parliamentary constituency on his campaign trail, women at a number of villages brought up this issue. Mr Chidambaram told them that if they are clear in their conscience that they have achieved the target and that the official, who is supposed to pay them the wages, has deprived them of their rightful earnings, they can give a written complaint and “action would be taken.”

At Pallapatti village in Nilakottai taluk, in the Dindigul Parliamentary constituency, nearly 200 women are cleaning an irrigation tank, as part of the NREGS. Lakshmi, a mother of two children — aged eight and nine — and Chitra, a mother of three — aged two, three and five — say they get Rs 75 for a day’s labour. Their problem is that they are out of their homes for most of the day and have to leave their children in the care of some one else in the village, which is 2 km away.

Is this under-payment a serious issue? A bank official in a rural branch, without wanting to be identified, denies it is. The people have a tendency to exaggerate to the media, he says. At Thuvariman village panchayat in Madurai constituency, its president, Mr T. Kannan, asserts that if the workers achieve the target, they get full payment under the NREGS. It is only when they fall short of the target, the payment comes down correspondingly. In any case, they get Rs 65-70, he says.

A whistle-stop tour of Dindigul and Theni constituencies and rural areas of Madurai constituency gives an idea of the issues affecting the voters in these places.

Thuvariman village panchayat, on the outskirts of Madurai, is predominantly agricultural with farmers cultivating coconut and banana. Mr Kannan and M. Nagalingam, a farmer, complain that they do not get compensation when their crop is destroyed due to natural causes. In 2006, for instance, says Nagalingam, paddy crop in a field was burnt when an overhead power-line snapped. No compensation was paid to the farmer.

NREG offers 100 days of work at Rs 80 a day. — N. Ramakrishnan

In 2007-08, strong winds destroyed mature banana crop and all the trees were lost. But no compensation was paid to the farmers, despite repeated represent- ations. At Karuttupatti village, falling within Theni constituency, Ravi Kuppusamy, a farmer, says farming is the main vocation in the village, with paddy being cultivated.

The single most important issue agitating them is increasing the height of the Mullaiperiyar dam. The area is almost entirely dependent on the Mullaiperiyar for its irrigation needs. He is happy with the loan waiver and the purchase price for paddy. “Hereafter for farmers to vote, there should be some subsidy,” adds Ramu, another agriculturist.

Farm labour shortage

Shortage of farm labour is also an issue of concern, for which the NREGS is partly responsible. Workers prefer to go for the NREGS programme or even for highway and railway projects, rather than spend the entire day working in a field. Farm workers used to get Rs 40-50 a day about 12-18 months back, now it is Rs 100-120 for the same work. S. Gnanavel, a farmer, says there is a shortage of the fertiliser they are used to. The substitute they get, he says, is not good enough and yields have dropped.

In one of the farms in Karuttupatti, there are just four women at work. Contrast that with nearly 155 villagers at work on an NREGS project just a short distance away. Amudha, one of the workers on the farm, says they get Rs 80 a day for working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Who will they vote for? “We heard that voters have got Rs 5,000 in Madurai. Why should we also not get it?” she says, referring to allegations of money being paid to voters in the Madurai constituency by the DMK candidate, Mr M. K. Alagiri’s supporters.

Agriculture, farm loan waiver, irrigation, compensation for crop loss, non-availability of inputs, shortage of farm hands and higher wages — these are the issues agitating the rural voters, as Tamil Nadu goes to the polls on May 13.

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