AMN
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin today said that industries affecting agriculture would not be allowed in the Protected Special Agriculture Zone in the Cauvery Delta region. He chaired the first meeting of the authority that oversees the implementation of the act relating to the zone in Chennai.
He said the Delta region serves as the lifeline for the state in producing food grains, as 14-lakh acres of land are under cultivation, accounting for 34 percent of paddy harvest. Assuring the farmers of all the support for the protection of agriculture, he said, desilting of irrigation canals are underway at the cost of 80 crore rupees in the Delta.
Mr Stalin sought the cooperation of the farmers for the works like strengthening of waterbodies in the region and for the construction of check dams. He pointed to the declaration of the Trichy-Nagapattinam Highway as the Agro-Industrial Corridor.
The whole of four Delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam and a few parts of Cuddalore, Ariyalur, Pudukkottai and Trichy districts form part of the Protected Special Agricultural Zone. The region was declared as a Special Zone under an act passed in the State Assembly in February last year.