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Hundreds of farmers, led by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), staged a sit-in protest outside the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Union office in Kilpauk, Chennai on Monday, January 5, demanding the return of gold jewellery and money alleged to be stolen by Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) across Tamil Nadu.
The protesting farmers said that the scandal running into several crores took place in at least 75 cooperative societies.
PACCS are grassroots-level cooperative institutions meant to provide affordable loans to small and marginal farmers. They offer crop, dairy and gold loans at subsidised interest rates and function under the state cooperative department.
Ravindran, Tamil Nadu state president of AIKS, pointed out several financial discrepancies and demanded the return of the pledged valuables.
“In 2010, in the Thirunavalur area of Kallakurichi district, 494 farmers pledged around 1,800 sovereigns of gold jewellery to cooperative societies. Many of them pledged the gold either for their children’s marriages or to manage losses due to crop damage. However, when they later sought to retrieve the jewellery, they were told that it had been stolen,” Ravindran told the media.
He added that petitions were submitted to former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and later to O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami, but no action was taken.
“Even the present Chief Minister MK Stalin, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, assured us during a meeting in Kallakurichi that the jewellery would be recovered once he came to power. That assurance has not been implemented yet,” Ravindran said.
According to him, the 1,800 sovereigns of gold lost would be worth nearly Rs 18 crore at current market value.
Similarly, Kamaraj, a farmer from Ulundurpet taluk in Kallakurichi district, said he pledged 10 sovereigns of gold in 2010, which he was later told had been stolen within three months.
“The accused was identified by the police, but neither the gold nor the money has been returned. We were assured a solution within six months during a meeting with the DSP and the Tahsildar, but that was four years ago,” he said.
The protesting farmers said districts including Kallakurichi, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Virudhunagar, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Erode have been affected, leaving farmers without their pledged gold or deposited money for over a decade in many cases.
Ravindran also cited other instances, including one at Kalasappakam PACCS in Tiruvannamalai district, where 54 farmers took dairy cow loans of Rs 28,000 each, pledging two sovereigns of gold per person.
“Even after repaying the loans in full, the gold jewellery has not been returned. Officials claim the jewellery is missing,” he said.
In Sathyamangalam PACCS in Gingee taluk of Villupuram district, 125 farmers allegedly deposited Rs 2.41 crore as fixed deposits in 2017, but the amount has not been returned so far, he added.
Similarly, in Veeralur PACCS in Tiruvannamalai district, deposits made by women-led self-help groups were allegedly never properly registered, despite the groups producing proof, he said.
AIKS pointed out that many farmers have died by suicide in connection with the issue and demanded the intervention of the Chief Minister.
Following the protest, Ravindran and other AIKS functionaries were called for talks by Tamil Nadu Cooperative Union state registrar Nanda Kumar.
Post the meeting, Ravindran told TNM that the government had assured that it would take a policy decision within a month to compensate the 494 farmers who lost 1,800 sovereigns of gold in Kallakurichi district.
“Based on the assurance, we have temporarily withdrawn the protest,” he said, adding that AIKS would continue to monitor the government’s action.