THOOTHUKUDI: Security has been beefed up at Kulathuvaipatti near Ettayapuram after villagers and residents of a Sri Lankan Tamils’ rehabilitation centre clashed on Saturday.
Sources said residents of Kulathuvaipatti and the rehabilitation centre have long been quarrelling over a pathway passing through the centre. The pathway is primarily used for reaching agriculture lands, but inmates of the centre had allegedly encroached it and were preventing easy transportation of farm implements and agriculture products.
Residents of Kulathuvaipatti had declared to boycott the Assembly election over the long-pending issue.
Meanwhile, Kulathuvaipatti residents dumped gravelled earth (‘saral man’) to revamp the pathway on Friday evening. On Saturday morning, inmates of the centre gathered on the road and stopped the work, leading to an altercation between the two sides. Sources said people on both sides pelted each other with stones.
The Ettayapuram police intervened and brought the situation under control. Over 100 police personnel have been deployed in the area to prevent further clashes, police said.