Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Nathampatti villagers desert houses

— Photo: K. Ganesan

Stay away: Villagers of Nathampatti who assembled at a foothill near Srivilliputtur.

SRIVILLIPUTTUR: Over 350 caste Hindus of Nathampatti near here deserted their houses and moved to an isolated foothills on Friday in protest against “unilateral” behaviour of some revenue and police officials and the local MLA T. Ramasamy.

They also threatened to return their ration cards in protest against the officials, who had allotted land for Dalits for constructing a community hall, did not show the same gesture to the caste Hindus.

The ‘Uthapuram-type of protest’ by the caste Hindus drove the officials to Mottamalai, a hillock, 3.5 km. away from Nathampatti of Watrap panchayat union. A team of revenue officials, led by District Revenue Officer, S. Malarvizhi, negotiated with the agitators for more than two hours.

Only after a promise of “amicably” settling their issues within 15 days, the agitators, who went to the foothills around noon, gave up their protest and returned home late after darkness set in. They also took their children from the local school in the afternoon.

The village has been remaining tense for more than a month, ever since caste Hindus started opposing the decision of Dalits to position an entrance to the under-construction community hall on the north side. Police have been deployed there since then.

The caste Hindus also stopped sending their children to a local primary school in protest.

On Wednesday, the caste Hindus started constructing a community hall on a Government poromboke right in front of the building that houses offices of the panchayat board and the village administrative officer.

The ‘nattanmai’ of caste Hindus, M. Ponnusamy, said that the local MLA, T. Ramasamy, had “settled the issue in the presence of revenue and police officials” and permitted to construct the hall. “The MLA said that the (poromboke) land on the south side should be with the Dalits and land on the north side can be enjoyed by the caste Hindus. But now the officials are stopping us,” he said.

Questioning the authority of the revenue officials to issue patta to the Dalits for the 3.5-cent poromboke land, which was reportedly used by the caste Hindus, Mr. Ponnusamy said they too should be given a matching land. He also complained that more land were being encroached by the Dalits. “We want that sprawling land to be divided among them (Dalits) and us (caste Hindus),” Mr. Ponnusamy said.

“There is no caste problem in our village. The only dispute is in sharing of land,” said Nathampatti secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam P. Thangavelu. He claimed that the dispute has been going on for more than three decades.

“If you do not keep up the promise, we will intensify the protest with support from people of 15 villages. We will block the road (highway),” one of them told the officials.

Meanwhile, Dalits laid siege to the Srivilliputtur tahsildar office and cooked food in front of the office protesting against caste Hindus.

“I intended to bring peace between the two groups. However, some did not like my stand and are blaming me,” Mr. Ramasamy told ‘The Hindu.’

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