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The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), whose star has been on the wane for a long while now, is seeking to drum up agitation against plans by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation India Ltd (NLCIL) to expand its mining operations in the northern district of Cuddalore, a Cauvery delta region.
Its President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss declared in a recent high-level leadership meet of the party that the party would fight the move by the NLCIL to commence working on its third mine over 12,500 acres of prime land, warning the expansion would turn the fertile delta into a barren land.
While there were 26 villages in the Cauvery Delta region, nine were under protected agricultural zone, and there was no way the corporation would be allowed to ruin such precious lands.
It is to be noted that in the past one year, there have been protests in the Cuddalore district areas against the move of the Central Public Sector Enterprise to take over agricultural lands that had been acquired more than a decade ago for the expansion of the Central PSU.
NLCIL acquired as many as 304 hectares of land between 2006 and 2015 in six villages abutting the mines. Of this, the company has taken possession of 273 hectares of land, while 31 hectares remained unutilised. The farmers continued to cultivate crops over the years on this 31 hectares of land and harvested.
But suddenly in July 2023, bulldozers entered the agricultural lands to uproot the crops in a move to take over the acquired land, fuelling massive protests. The NLCIL was forced to retreat for a while and allow the landowners time to harvest their crop.
Ramadoss led a massive protest in Cuddalore on July 27, 2023, and the agitation turned violent, as some of the protestors hurled stones at the police. Police arrested Anbumani and many party workers, though they were released soon after.
The PMK has always sought to position itself as the sole champion of the much exploited Vanniars, a numerically strong OBC in the northern districts. One of the party’s earlier planks had been the demand for fulfillment of promises made when the lands were acquired, like jobs for the members of families whose lands had been taken over.
But it was shoved on to the back burner over a period of time, but off and on the party keeps going back to it. It has not seen much of a political success for nearly two decades now, and so it should find in Neyveli mining a useful opportunity to bounce back.
At the same time though, it is an ally of the ruling BJP which seems determined on expansion. It is a moot point then how far the party will go in its campaigns.
