The Tamil Nadu Anaithu Vivasaya Sangangalin Poratta Kuzhu (All Farmer Union’s protesting group) has announced a state-wide protest on Tuesday, November 21 against the arrest of the farmers from Tiruvannamalai and booking them under the Goondas Act. The protest will be followed by a mass hunger strike in Chennai on November 29, the union has also announced.
Earlier this month, 20 farmers from Melma and neighbouring villages in Tiruvannamalai district who were protesting land acquisition for the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) were arrested and later, seven of them were booked under the Goondas Act. The Goondas Act charges against six of the seven farmers were dismissed by Chief Minister MK Stalin on November 17.
At the Anaithu Vivasaya Sangangalin Poratta Kuzhu meeting held in Trichy on Saturday, the participants alleged that the state government arrested the protesting Tiruvannamalai farmers after falsely accusing them of entering into a dispute with the police. Through its protests, the union intends to urge the state government to withdraw all the cases registered against farmers and farmer association leaders who have been protesting against the SIPCOT project and to dismiss the Goondas Act charges against one farmer, A Arul.
The protesters will also be appealing to CM Stalin to suspend Minister for Public works, Highways & Minor Ports EV Velu, Tiruvannamalai Superintendent of Police Karthikeyan, and Tiruvannamalai District Collector B Murugesh for not allowing the farmers to exercise their right to protest and for sanctioning charges under the Goondas Act.
Farmers from Cheyyar, Melma, and neighbouring villages have been holding peaceful sit-in protests for over 130 days on their patta land, opposing the acquisition of 3,000 acres. A case was registered in August 2023 against 33 people, including farmers who protested the detention of other farmers who were walking to the Sub-Collector’s office in Cheyyar to give a complaint against the land acquisition. Among the 33, 20 were arrested three months after an FIR was filed.
Several activists, including Nityanand Jayaraman from the Chennai Solidarity Group, Jayaram Venkatesan from Arappor Iyakkam, G Sundarrajan from Poovulagin Nanbargal, and Aruna Roy from the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, had condemned the arrests and criticised the move as an attempt to stifle the free speech of farmers and crush critical questioning of state action.