A delegation of the parliamentary group of the KKE, consisting of Nikos Karathanasopoulos, parliamentary representative of the KKE, Diamanto Manolakou, MP of the KKE and George Lambroulis, MP and vice-president of the Parliament, met on Friday, January 10 at the offices of the KKE’s Committee of Coordinating Committee of Kopaida farmers, which has been in mobilization for almost 40 days. The meeting was also attended by Kostas Basdekis, regional councilor of Central Greece with the “Popular Rally”.
The farmers, according to the relevant information, “expressed their anxiety about the situation prevailing in the area of Kopaida, since a large part of the arable land was lost the previous year due to a lack of irrigation water, while for the new cropping year they express their doubt as to whether will the Region of Central Greece, which has the responsibility of irrigation in Kopaida, be able to respond to the needs of crops”.
In the discussion that took place “it turned out that both the government and the Region, in previous years, did not implement almost any infrastructure modernization project, especially in the section related to irrigation but also to road construction, and other projects that are necessary to facilitate the cultivation process in the former lake of Kopaida. It was clearly seen that the government and the Region prioritize in relation to water drainage in the region, first the needs of the industrialists in Oinophyta-Schimatari and secondarily the needs of the farmers and the agricultural crops of Kopaida. This is reflected by the funds provided for some necessary measures, which are not sufficient to cover the cultivation needs of an area of over 250,000 acres”.
The farmers expressed their demands to the government, as they are “the compensation for the crops lost the previous year due to lack of irrigation water, 100% the fault of the Region, the restoration of the functioning of the floating irrigation system that is currently abandoned on the shore of Lake Ylikis and the provision of the necessary amount of water to the needs for the new growing season that is in progress can be met. At the same time, funds should be made available for the modernization and maintenance of both the irrigation networks and the rural road construction throughout the entire area of Kopaida”.
KKE MPs “expressed their support for the struggle of the farmers in the just struggle they are doing for their survival, and in this direction they will immediately file a topical question that will raise the issues of funding for the necessary irrigation and road infrastructure projects and the necessity of compensation at 100% of the damages suffered by their crops”. They pointed out that “this particular development in Kopaida is part of the overall anti-people policy drawn up by the EU and the government, which aims to drive subsistence farmers off the land and from their fields, concentrating agricultural land and production in big capitalist enterprises. Kopaida is also a profitable field for the energy production groups, since a significant part of the area has been filled with photovoltaic parks and objectively conflicts with the effort of bio-wrestler farmers to live in their place by cultivating their land”.
Accordingly, support for the farmers of Kopaida was also expressed by Kostas Basdekison behalf of the Popular Rally of Central Greece, “who all this time intervened in the Region, while he has already submitted a request for the convening of an extraordinary regional council, with only the issue of the situation in Kopaida and the satisfaction of the demands of the farmers of the region”.
Source: www.enikos.gr
