Toddy tapping: Udumalpet farmers allege police high-handedness
Farmers in Udumalpet are protesting against police treatment during the enforcement of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act regarding toddy tapping. They argue that police are using excessive force and ignoring human rights guidelines while the state considers legalizing the practice.
Why it matters
The conflict underscores the friction between traditional agricultural livelihoods and outdated prohibition laws in India.
Farmers in Udumalpet and surroundings, a section of whom are into tapping toddy, have questioned the Police Department’s “high-handedness” in making arrests.
The complaint of farmers is that those in the limits of Udumalpet and Amaravathy police stations are subjected to harsh treatment under Section 4 1(C) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937 at a time when the State government, at the intervention of the Madras High Court in support of the farmers, is considering the widespread demand for exempting toddy from the Act, according to Ashok Kumar, State organiser of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam.
While officials of these police stations claimed that they were only enforcing the Act as per the directives of the government, the reasoning of the farmers was that there was no need to cause mental and physical agony to the farmers in the process of enforcement.
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