DINDIGUL
The tribal people living in Siruvattukadu panchayat on Pachalaur hill want basic amenities, community certificate, power and road connectivity. The panchayat does not have communication facility. Mobile phones too are not functioning in the village in the absence of any network.
Pulaiyar community people at Settukadu said they were brought under Scheduled Castes (SC) category from Scheduled Tribes (ST) category in 1996. They could not avail themselves of any facilities meant for the STs. They appealed to Collector T.G. Vinay, who inspected the village on Wednesday, to treat them as a Scheduled Tribe and issue community certificate.
They had been fighting for community certificate for the past two decades. Anthropologists too submitted reports to the government in their favour, they said.
People at Thalaikuthukadu had to trek one and a half km to reach Puliakasam for education and health care. Even three-year-old children from Thalaikuthukadu trekked through forests to reach the anganwadi every day, they said.
“We live in dilapidated, thatched shelters. Rainy season will be the worst time of the year. Children and elders struggle in bone-biting cold during winter. With no proper houses, three families had to share a small thatched structure,” they said.
More than 200 families have been living in this village.
They, however, gave prominence to their demand for community certificate for their children to attend school. With no community certificate, their children could not go for higher education, they said.
Reacting to their plea, Mr. Vinay assured them that he would take steps to issue community certificate for them.
The tribals also raised the issue of elephant menace with the Collector.
District Forest Officer D. Venkatesh said a herd of elephants was chased away recently. Three more elephants camped on the hills. A special team would trek through the forests soon to find out the movement of elephants. Five check dams would be constructed across forest streams to improve the groundwater table in the area, he noted.
Pulikuthukadu residents wanted power connection and road facilities. Forest officials did not allow them even to level the soil road which was riddled with boulders and potholes, they said.
