‘The project will affect the livelihood of farming community’ More than 200 farmers and women staged a demonstration at a village in Chennimalai block of Erode district on Tuesday protesting against the Gas Authority of India Limited's (GAIL) move to lay the gas pipeline through farm lands. Farmers and women gathered at a field in Periyakattupalayam near Chennimalai, one of the villages enroute the pipeline, and raised slogans against the GAIL authorities stating that the project would affect the livelihood of the farming community. Farm lands Protesting under the banner of Farmer's Livelihood Protection Movement, farmers said that the public sector major had laid the pipeline along the National Highways in Kerala and Karnataka. But it had been taking the pipeline through the farm lands. The State government should intervene in the issue immediately and stop the public sector company from laying the pipeline and protect the interests of the farmers. The government should organise a tripartite meeting with the participation of farmers and GAIL authorities. The farming community should be allowed to voice its concerns in the meeting, they demanded.