Farmer consumes poison

CHENNAI: There was high drama in front of the Chief Minister’s special cell at the Secretariat on Thursday when a farmer consumed poison and collapsed on the staircase near the entrance.  Police said Raj Kumar, a farmer from Vailankanni in Nagapattinam district, had come to the Secretariat along with his friend Dakshinamoorthy to lodge a complaint.  Dakshinamoorthy said that he was waiting near the special cell, while the farmer had gone to rest under a tree on the Secretariat premises.After an hour, Raj Kumar had come near the staircase and collapsed.  “I went near him and smelt pesticide (kuranai) from his mouth. He was with me all the time and I did not know he had brought pesticide with him. He just told me that he wanted to take a nap,” said Dakshinamoorthy.Even as the people waiting near the special cell were shocked to see the man, police arrived and rushed the man in an ambulance to the Government Hospital.  “Doctors said that they could say anything about his health only after 12 hours,” said Dakshinamoorthy.Dakshinamoorthy said that Raj Kumar was in possession of 13 cents of land at Vailankanni, on which he was growing groundnuts.  He alleged that church authorities had encroached upon a part of the land by laying a road. Raj Kumar had approached the CM’s special cell 13 times in the last two months and submitted petitions. “Raj Kumar and his ancestors had been in possession of the land for many years now.  The church authorities had owned a land near his 13-cent land and laid a road in Raj Kumar’s land with the help of local authorities.  He was frustrated as there was no action on any of his petitions,” Dakshinamoorthy said.