Recently, Edappadi Palaniswami had announced the Cauvery delta region in the state as a 'Protected Agricultural Zone'. While the decision has been viewed as one of the major announcements of Edappadi's government as the delta region has been witnessing fierce protests from the farmers to decamp the Hydrocarbon and Methane projects, our sources have revealed that the government has taken this decision to repair and to fix the reputation of the party that was largely damaged in the repeated electoral losses including 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the recently held rural local body polls.

The sources stated that such major announcements are not new to the ADMK government. In 2004, the party had lost all the 40 parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha polls held in that year and the results had shocked then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa following which she repealed some of the major acts including Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Act, Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), Tamil Nadu Essential Services Maintenance Act (TESMA), and revoked the act that prohibited the sacrifice of cattle at the temples with the motive of revamping the party's lost reputation.

The same fear of losing the elections and strongholds has now transferred to Edappadi Palaniswami due to which, with the view of reviving the party's growth and bringing the hope among the people over his rule, he has now announced the Cauvery delta as a 'Protected Agricultural Zone'. This region which lies in the central and eastern parts of the state has been typically called the Delta region which has more production of rice. The farmers have been voicing against the government's policies of rolling out Hydrocarbon and Methane projects that would harm the agricultural fields. After Edappadi has made such an announcement, the political parties and farmers have been welcoming the move.

However, despite the state government mapped the region with the tag of the protected zone, our sources stated that the Central government, which proposed to camp the Hydrocarbon projects in the region, is supposed to issue an official announcement. The tag of 'Protected Agricultural Zone' prohibits the government or any other parties from undertaking the projects but recently, the Modi led Central government had enacted the amendments that debar public consultation on implementing the hydrocarbon projects and the government has also signed the agreement with ONGC and Vedanta groups to install their projects and through the amendment, these companies don't require the public consultation for the projects.

The activists who have been fighting against the Hydrocarbon projects question the government on the recent agreements and amendments and the local people have been slashing the state government as the people close to the party's leadership have been setting up the mechanisms and acquiring the sand in the protected zone. 

On the other hand, our sources reveal that the Central BJP government had drilled Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Shanmugam with its questions on its recent announcement by the state government. The BJP government is asking the government to disclose the details from whom the state government had acquired the consent to declare such an announcement. The sources say that Edappadi Palaniswami had earned huge anger from the Central BJP government and he has been lobbying with Delhi to console the center.

Also read: Will Hydrocarbon get decamped from TN? Here's the announcement from CM!