KARUR: Over 100 Dalits marched to the collectorate on Monday and submitted a petition to the collector demanding a crematorium in their village. They said the present funeral ground was to be utilized for highways expansion. Resident of Puravipalayam, Kulathupalayam, Amaravathi Nagar, Teachers’ colony, Ganeshapuram, Kollapalayam, Samathuvapuram and Puliyur sought the Collector’s intervention in allotting them land to conduct funerals.
Mahalingam, a villager alleged that a 16-acre plot on which they conducted funerals for generations was sold to a cement manufacturing unit.
“Later, we were carrying out funerals in the land which was provided to us by the government that was owned by the Highways department on Karur - Trichy NH road. But now, in order to reduce the travel time, the Highways department has planned to utilize the land by laying roads across it,” he concluded.