trichy a 26yearold man from mannanchanallur in trichy who has undertaken a cycle rally from kanyakumari to chennai to highlight the sorry state of agriculture due to conversion of farmlands into housing plots reached trichy on monday t balamurugan of vadakkipatti near mannachanallur hails from a family whose occupation has been primarily agriculture mannachanallur being a rainfed area the agriculture work of his family gradually came to a standstill after water scarcity loomed large and the wells turned dry a decade ago after completing my class xii my family was unable to provide me higher studies as they could not earn from the farming following which i chose construction work in the past two decades most farmlands were converted into housing plots which disturbed me a lot and forced me to take up a rally to create awareness balamurugan told toi on the way to perambalur the objective of the cycle rally that commenced from kanyakumari on february 18 is to sensitise the public about the illeffects of converting farmlands into real estate if the situation continues at this pace our future generation will have to bear the brunt of shortage of food it is high time we raise the pitch against the alarming trend so i am on a mission to disseminate the message and insist the state government on passing a law to prevent the conversion of farmlands he said his journey covered kanyakumari tirunelveli virudhunagar madurai and trichy he plans to reach chennai after covering perambalur villupuram tindivanam and chengalpattu to petition the chief minister edappadi k palanisami pedalling for 80km a day balamurugan was upset over the reaction of the public in urban areas to his rally urban people are not bothered about the issue but those in rural areas show interest to take home the message from my rally he said