RAMANATHAPURAM
A day after the district administration extended time limit for raising objections to the draft list of wards released after delimitation, residents of Vellaiyapuram, a Dalit village, thronged the Collectorate here on Wednesday to protest the merger of their ward with another village, dominated by caste Hindus.
The villagers who had blocked Kamudhi– Sayalkudi Road on December 31, objecting to the merger of their village, constituting ward 2 in Kamudhi special grade town panchayat, with Singapuliapatti, constituting ward 1, presented petition to the District Revenue Officer (DRO) here on Wednesday, urging her to restore status quo.
Dailts (Devendrakula Vellalars) living in Vellaiyapuram represented the town panchyat from ward 2 for more than three decades and the recent delimitation deprived them of their representation, they said. After delimitation, the villages constituting ward 1 and 2 were merged and named as ward 15, they said.
Singapuliapatti was dominated by caste Hindus and the two villages had witnessed communal clashes in the past. Some cases were registered in this connection and they were pending before different courts, Vellaiyapuram village leader Dharmalingam said.
The merger of the two villages in the delimitation to constitute ward 15 would not serve the interests of the people of the two villages. Hence, the people of Singapuliapatti had also opposed the merger, he said.
Dalits were already discriminated against in the town panchayat as the dominant Muslim and Nadar community people retained the chairman and vice-chairman posts, he said, adding Dalits, though represented a ward, could not even get the vice-chairman post.
“Now there are attempts to deprive Dalits of their ward representation,” he said, and urged the district administration to consider their objection. The Collector has extended the time limit for submitting objections till January 5.
