Plea to remove ‘Gounder’ tag

The Malayalee community spread over Kadambur and Bargur hills in the district has appealed to the Central Government to remove ‘Gounder’ tag from its recent notification on its inclusion into ST list.

At a meeting organised by The Hill Tribe Malayalee Community Welfare Association at Gobichettipalayam earlier this week, its secretary N.S. Ramalingam said the community living in Coimbatore, The Nilgiris and Erode had been left out of the ST list despite the kinship of the community members with those in Dharmapuri, North Arcot, Velur, Tiruvannamalai, Vizhupuram, Salem, Namakkal and Tiruchi districts who enjoyed the status.

The Mayalalee community was ranked 25th in the list of 36 tribes in Tamil Nadu after the country’s Independence.

The community that had its origin in the Kolli hills had migrated to other places as cattle-rearers and cultivators in rainfed areas.

At no point of time did the community ask for its classification as Malayalee Gounder, Mr. Ramalingam said, urging the Central and State Governments to do the needful for nomenclature rectification.

P.R. Tirugnanam, former Yercaud MLA, presided over the meeting that had the participation of senior BJP functionaries.