Mysuru: In the wake of Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav’s arrest by Tamil Nadu police in Tiruvannamalai, where he participated in a protest against the eight-lane Chennai-Salem Expressway project, the farmers in the district decided to show solidarity with their brethren in the neighbouring state.Farmers, writers and activists gathered near the Mahatma Gandhi statue near the Mysore Law Courts complex, and raised slogans against the Tamil Nadu government. Dubbing the project ‘anti-farmer’, acclaimed writer Devanooru Mahadeva said, “People are laboring under the delusion that the expressway will usher in development. This is an absolute misconception. The project is being taken up at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, and at least 3% of this – Rs 300 crore – will reach the rich. Only the timber mafia will benefit from this project, which entails destruction of forests.”Questioning the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to construct alternative roads between Chennai and Salem, when there were other roads connecting the two cities, Mahadeva said, “The state government wants to build another road by acquiring agricultural land, and destroying forests. This is condemnable. If the Centre goes ahead with the project, that region will meet the same fate as Kodagu.”Condemning Yadav’s arrest, Mahadeva said, “He went there merely to speak on behalf of the farmers and listen to their woes. He was detained for no reason. When Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister, an Emergency was openly declared. This is an undeclared Emergency.”Lamenting the rise in fuel prices, the writer said that the rate of a litre of petrol had been Rs 65 when a barrel of crude oil was around USD 130. “Now, though the price of crude oil has dropped, petrol price is on the rise. This constant fluctuation is like slow poison to the people,” he said.

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