A discussion was hosted at the Coimbatore circuit house between the ministers, MLAs from the western region and the farmers of the seven districts of Tamil Nadu.
In this meeting, small ports and public works department minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy, electricity minister P. Thangamani, minister for municipality, rural development and implementation of special schemes S.P. Velumani, minister for higher education K.P. Anbalagan, minister for environment K.C. Karuppannan, housing development and city development minister Udumalai. K. Radhakrishnan participated. Farmers from Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode, Namakkal, Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri interacted with the ministers on the real-time issues faced by them and the redressal they expect from the government.
During this meeting, discussions were held on drought situation, human-animal conflict and its prevention, desilting the lakes and distribution of compensation to farmers due to drought. The ministers apprised the farmers on the remedial measures. And, that data is being collected on drought-hit agricultural lands across the state, claiming it to be one of the worst drought faced by the Sate in 130 years. The ministers also assured the farmers that efforts will be made to provide 100% compensation to all those farmers who are hit by the drought.
One of the minister also advised the farmers to cultivate crops that will yield despite drought conditions. And also reassured that, as it was during the reign of former Chief Minister, J. Jayalalitha, this present government will continue to be farmer-friendly.
Coimbatore district collector T.N. Hariharan,. A.K. Selvaraj MP, MLAs P.R.G. Arunkumar, Amman K. Arjunan, farmers from the seven districts, representatives of farmers unions participated in this meeting.