Residents of Thaneerpandalpudur submitted a petition to the district administration on Monday to sanction them land for graveyard.
The village with 600 backward and most backward class families has been forced to relinquish an area hitherto utilised as a graveyard to the Highways Department.
In the absence of alternative location, the residents were facing a severe ordeal to cremate or bury dead bodies. The Village Administrative Officer had refused to part with land when the residents had sought utilisation of a government ‘poromboke’ site for the purpose.
The residents referred to the strange sanction of 49 cents of land for graveyard for Adi Dravida community when there were none in the village.
According to Prakasam, a representative of the villagers, the district administration must explore scope for providing them at least one-third of the unused land site (allotted to Adi Dravidar community).
Else, the request of the backward class residents for sanction of 50 cents of land at a 15-acre site owned by HR and CE Department at a nearby location between Thottipalayam and Government Hospital.
