As many as 10 farmers from Parandur’s Ekanapuram have been booked under non-bailable sections for boycotting the Lok Sabaha elections on Friday, April 19. The farmers are among those who have been protesting against the Parandur airport project alongside the Joint Movement Against Parandur Airport and Farmers Welfare Association.
According to the residents, a government officer named Sundaramurthy arrived at Ekanapuram on polling day to ask government employees and the families to vote on April 19. The residents argued with the officer and denied paying heed to the appeal. The ten farmers have been identified as Subramanian, Kathiresan, Ganapathy, Balaraman, Munusamy, Ilangovan, Gavaskar, Sudhakar, Ombagavathy and Vivekanandhan. They were booked by the C2 Sunguvarchatram police.
The case has been registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 294(b) (obscene acts and songs), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging of his duty). All the 10 people named in the FIR were sent notices to appear before the C2 Sunguvarchatram police on Monday, April 22 for an inquiry.
It may be noted that the project was initially proposed to take shape in 4,870 acres of land that extends over 12 villages including Ekanapuram and Parandur. However, as per an order from 2023, it was announced that 5,746 acres of land from 20 villages will need to be acquired for the project. A notification to acquire the land was also released in February 2024.
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