The Madras High Court on its own took up as PIL reports of several hundred tons of paddy getting spoilt and issued notice to the state government asking it to submit details about storage facilities besides directing it to protect farm produce.
A special bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and Anita Sumanth took notice of reports in an English and Tamil daily in which it was stated with photographs that paddy which was kept in the open was spoiled due to the rains.
The bench also directed the government to take immediate steps to protect the farm produce, in particular the paddy cultivated in the delta region.
Justice M Sathyanarayanan made a note of the reports and forwarded it to Chief Justice AP Sahi seeking his permission to allow the court to take it up as a PIL.
In his note, the Judge said "In delta regions of the state there is a bumper harvest of paddy and for want of storage facilities the harvested paddy is stored in open places.
A week back there was a thunderstorm and as per weather reports it is likely to occur again."