Five families, all sympathisers of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, have been allegedly ostracised by the Idinthakarai village welfare committee for having celebrated the ruling party’s thumping victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Demanding action against the village committee office-bearers and members, the affected families, led by S. Sahaya Kaboor, submitted a petition to Collector M. Karunakaran on Wednesday.
Contract workEven after Idinthakarai became the epicentre of the anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project struggle, Mr. Sahaya Kaboor of this coastal hamlet continued his contract works in the nuclear power project amidst incessant threats from the villagers agitating against the KKNPP as he did not want to give-up his 12 year-old livelihood.
When the threats became more intense in 2013, Mr. Kaboor left Idinthakarai to settle down at Parameswarapuram near Radhapuram.
After the threats subsided to some extent, Mr. Kaboor returned to his birthplace by 2013-end.
Threatened“Though a group of persons continued to threaten me and my family members, we ignored it after returning to Idinthakarai. When my relatives celebrated the AIADMK’s victory with crackers and sweets on Friday last, the Idinthakarai village committee members, who had banned all sorts of electioneering in the village during the run-up to the polls, opposed it. Some of them entered our house on Tuesday and threatened us to leave the village,” Mr. Kaboor said.
Unable to resist the village committee’s dictum, families of Mr. Kaboor, his brothers Lawrence and Socrates and sister Jaquline and Mr. Kaboor’s father-in-law left Idinthakarai and stayed overnight in the nearby forest with five children and seven women before coming to the Collectorate to submit the petition on Wednesday morning.
Refuting the charges, president of Idinthakarai Village Welfare Committee S.R.J. Augustine said Mr. Kaboor, who was “terrorising villagers” with his unruly behaviour, settled down at Parameswarapuram following a growing opposition and then returned to the village recently.
“We actually wanted him to be a disciplined resident of Idinthakarai without creating any trouble and asked him to give an undertaking in black and white. But he refused and left the village. Now, he is making baseless allegations against the village welfare committee. We never ostracised anybody,” Mr. Augustine said.
Explaining the entire episode, a group of villagers from Idinthakarai submitted a petition in the Collector’s Office in the evening.
