Poor rainfall kills neera yield; farmers hit

M. K. Ananth

Neera (palm nectar), a sweet, natural coolant, is collected from palm trees between mid January and May every year.

But the season is nearing its end quite early this year, as the yield from palm trees has come down heavily because of scant rain last year.

The number of persons selling ‘pathanir’ alongside the roads have came down too.

Medicinal value

The drink having medicinal value is usually collected twice a day.

It is used for making jaggery too. “Palm trees have very high drought resistance. But the neera yield is affected when rainfall dips,” said V. Vijayalakshmi, Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Palm Products Development Board.

She said that Krishnagiri district has more than two lakh palm trees. Mathur, Pochampalli, Eechanngadu, Muttapatti, Kalarpathi, Kodipathi, Madhampatti, and Chanipathi have a thick concentration of palm trees.

“There are about one lakh trees in Salem district. There is a thick population of these trees at Thanavathiyur, Vanavasi, Tharamangalam, and Periyampatti,” Ms. Vijayalakshmi said and added that not all the trees are used for tapping palm nectar.

She said that male palm trees begin yielding neera during the early days of the season — from mid January to February.

“They yield about 10 litres to 15 litres a day. The female trees begin yielding when the yield of male trees starts dropping. But the female trees yield 20 litres to 25 litres a tree a day and for a longer period,” she said.

This year the yield has dropped by 50 per cent and has badly affected the livelihood of people who depend on it for a living,” she added.

Krishnagiri: Where caste vies with Modi factor

R. Arivanantham

Infrastructure gaps impede development in Krishnagiri

The Krishnagiri Lok Sabha constituency has to its credit many specialities such as, the much contentious Cauvery River entering the State at Biligundlu, substantial mineral (granite) wealth and the hub of horticulture and floriculture products.

Bordering Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the influence of linguistic minorities such as ‘Vokkaligas,’ ‘Lingayats,’ from Karnataka and the ‘Reddys’ from Andhra Pradesh hold the key in three Assembly segments of Thally, Hosur and Veppanahalli. The other dominant communities are the OBC ‘Vanniyars’ who form 20 per cent of the electorate, the Dalits (16 per cent) and ‘Vellalars’ (11.5 per cent).

Since the 1951 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has won eight times in this constituency. Stalwarts such as C. Subramaniam (elected in the 1971 by-election) and C.R. Narasimhan, grandson of C. Rajagopalachari won the seat in the first two elections.

Over 1500 tiny and small ancillary auto industries, auto majors and a watch industry provide direct and indirect employment to thousands of locals and migrant labourers. Yet, the lack of efforts on the part of the Centre and State governments to improve industrialisation and infrastructure is a key issue in this constituency.

The SIPCOT industrial estate established in Bargur Panchayat Union on 1300 acres has not taken off due to lack of basic amenities. The Bolupalli SIPCOT industrial estate project is also yet to move ahead due to high land rates fixed by the authorities, says an office-bearer of the ‘Hosur Small and Tiny Industries Association.’

Further, Krishnagiri does not have a direct train to Chennai, as the train to Tirupathur was withdrawn nearly five decades ago. The proposed rail link between Jolarpet and Hosur via Krishnagiri and Shoolagiri is pending with the Planning Commission for over a year.

“The immediate demand is a direct train between Hosur and Chennai via Bangalore till the new rail line is laid’’ said M. Thulasidoss, Secretary, Hosur Payanigal Membattu Sangam.

Expansion of the Krishnagiri-Tiruvannamalai National Highway into four-lane has not happened.

Having zeroed in on this seat quite early, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) nominated its president G.K. Mani. He, in fact, started campaigning in October last year. The ruling AIADMK has fielded former District Panchayat Chairman K. Ashok Kumar from the ‘Vellala Goundar’ community and the DMK candidate is P. Chinna Pillappa, a lawyer belonging to ‘Kurumbar’ community.

The All India Congress Committee secretary A. Chellakumar, who has got the party ticket this time and N.S.M. Gowda of Janata Dal (Secular), who is contesting with the support of Communist Party of India (Marxist) are among the other key contestants.

The DMK has won the seat twice in the last two elections in 2004 and 2009, when it was an ally of the Congress. This time, both the parties face the PMK, which is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance that claims a ‘Modi factor’ in its favour. The poll code here is all the more hard to crack as the election date approaches.

Narendra Modi's Election Campaign Speech At Krishnagiri

Security to be strengthened for Modi’s campaign in Krishnagiri

The district police is gearing up for providing foolproof security to the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s election campaign meeting to be held in Krishnagiri on Wednesday afternoon.

Highly placed sources in the police department told The Hindu that they had received a tentative schedule of Modi’s visit to Krishnagiri.

As per the schedule, he would land at the private air strip Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Limited (TAAL) near Hosur and then proceed by a chartered helicopter to the meeting venue in Kanimedu near Krishnagiri.

As many as 3,000 police personnel from the nearby districts such as Dharmapuri, Tirupur, Namakkal, Tiruchi and Vellore including 12 companies of Tamil Nadu Special Police will be present for the meeting.

As many as two Deputy Inspectors General of Police, and six Superintendents of Police would be deployed across the district.

Ahead of Modi’s visit Subash G. Trivedi, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Coastal Security) from Gujarat reached Krishnagiri on Tuesday to inspect the security arrangements.

He had visited the Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Limited (TAAL) facility on Tuesday afternoon to check the security preparedness, the sources said.

After the Krishnagiri campaign meeting, Mr. Modi will go to Salem and Coimbatore.

After the public meeting in Coimbatore, Mr. Modi will leave for Ramanathapuram after an overnight stay, the party sources added.

NDA will bag 320 seats, says Vaiko

MDMK general secretary Vaiko addressing an election meeting in Mathur on Monday. Krishnagiri PMK candidate G.K.Mani is in the picture.

People who wish to have caste, and communal harmony and peace will prefer a government headed by the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, MDMK general secretary Vaiko said on Monday.

Mr. Vaiko was canvassing votes for the PMK candidate for Krishnagiri G.K. Mani and Dharmapuri candidate Anbumani Ramadoss at a series of meetings at Hosur, Shoolagiri, Krishnagiri, Bargur, Mathur, Pochampalli and Uthangarai in Krishnagiri district and at Palacode and Pennagaram in Dharmapuri district.

Mr. Vaiko said first-time voters wanted a change of guard and they would definitely vote for Mr. Modi, helping the NDA bag 320 seats and handing the BJP 272 seats (simple majority). The NDA would win all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. If that happened, “we can fight for the rights of Indian fishermen and those of the State in the long-pending Palar, south Pennar, Cauvery and Mullaiperiyar dam issues.

Condemning the incident in which stones were thrown at Mr. Anbumani Ramadoss, the PMK Youth Wing leader, Mr. Vaiko praised the restraint shown by PMK workers to avoid a clash. He also praised the swift action taken by Superintendent of Police Asra Garg.