After intervention from the Tiruvallur district collector, Maheshwari Ravikumar, and Superintendent of Police, P. Aravindan, the Aathupakkam Dalit panchayat president V. Amritham finally hoisted the national flag at the panchayat office on Thursday.
Social activists say that such discrimination is prevalent across the State, and have demanded a monitoring mechanism in every district to address such issues.
Ms. Amritham, an independent candidate, became the Panchayat president of Aathupakkam panchayat near Gummidipoondi. However, according to her son V. Sasikumar, she has been facing discrimination from her first day. “She was not allowed to hoist the flag on Republic Day and on Independence Day too, she could not. There was no cooperation from the panchayat secretary whose name is also Sasikumar,” he said.
He said that his mother did not have a voice even in Gram Sabha meetings. Though they had lodged a complaint with the Block Development Officer (BDO), there was no action taken. A television journalist who went to collect news about the incident was also assaulted by Panchayat secretary and Vijayakumar, the husband of Revathy who is the Panchayat vice-president.
However after the incident, the Tiruvallur Collector conducted an inquiry and the panchayat secretary was suspended. He and Vijayakumar were also arrested. Meanwhile on Thursday, the Collector and SP visited the village and had Ms. Amritham hoist the flag at the Panchayat office. Ms. Amritham distributed chocolates to everyone present there.
“I have also asked all my BDOs to conduct an inquiry into similar atrocities in the district and submit a report at the earliest,” said Ms. Maheshwari Ravikumar.
Similar incidents
R. Kamaraj, husband of Nemallur Panchayat ward member Fathima Mani, said that there was a similar incident in his village. “Our panchayat president S. Govindammal from the Scheduled Tribe community was not able to hoist the flag during the Independence Day function. During the function, when I said that from next time only the panchayat president, vice-president or secretary should hoist the flag, I got threatening calls from some people,” he said.
Meanwhile, D. Ravikumar, VCK leader and MP, Villupuram, said that there is a need to set up an advisory body in every district to help SC/ST panchayat presidents carry out of their functions smoothly and address problems, including discrimination, faced by them.
“After the panchayat system was introduced, no other State has faced discrimination like Tamil Nadu. Casteism and attacks on Dailt candidates who stand for elections have occurred in many places. Many other Dailt panchayat presidents may be facing the same problem encountered by Ms. Amritham. But they may be suffering silently. Hence I have sought a report on the problems faced by SC/ST panchayat presidents in my constituency,” he said.
He said that there have been instances when elected Dalit panchayat presidents have been forced to resign due to pressure from various quarters, blackmail and false accusations against them. “A Collector cannot look into all these issues. Hence there is an urgent need for a resolution mechanism to be in place for problems faced by Dalit panchayat representatives,” he noted.
