TN Govt, Centre not taking farmers' plight seriously: Congress

With Tamil Nadu farmers protesting in Delhi's Jantar Mantar for the past 15 days demanding drought relief package from the Centre, the Congress on Wednesday urged the government to consider the matter "urgently" and allocate money as demanded.

"Though the problem is very serious, I don't think that the state and the Central governments are taking this issue seriously. It's a dangerous and very serious situation in Tamil Nadu, so the government should take it up urgently with proper care and proper money should be allotted to resolve this problem," Tamil Nadu Congress' president S. Thirunavukkarasar told ANI.

The farmers have been in the national capital, demanding that their loans from nationalised banks be forgiven, fair and just prices be set for their produce and to come up with realistic solutions to the water scarcity in the state.

They have been staging protest at Jantar Mantar by holding living mice in their mouths to demonstrate that they will have to feed on them if the government fails to declare drought relief packages and waiver loans for the farmers from the state.

Meanwhile, the farmers are expected to meet Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the evening. DMK MP Tiruchi Siva is expected to accompany the farmers.

State's ruling party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham member and Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M. Thambidurai, who visited the agitating farmers yesterday for a second time, assured them that the issue would be placed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the earliest.