A group of Dalits from Uthamarseeli in Srirangam taluk arrived at the Collectorate here with their ration cards and attempted to surrender it to the District Collector on Monday, contending that they were being tortured by caste Hindus in their area.
They submitted a petition to the Collector condemning the inability of the police to take action against those involved in threatening their peace.
The dalits attempted to return their ration cards and electoral identity cards in protest. Their petition read that there were about 150 dalit families residing at Ambedkar street, in which around 3,000 caste Hindu families also resided. It is said that on October 2012, a group of caste Hindus pasted hand bills in the village that carried insulting words against dalits.
Soon, the dalits lodged a complaint with No 1 Tollgate police station, based on which peace talks between representatives of the two communities were held in the presence of a tahsildhar. Following the talks, the caste Hindus willingly agreed not to invite any kind of quarrel with the dalits.
However, recently the police allegedly said that they are not in a position of taking action on the caste Hindus since they had the backing of political leaders. A group of dalit leaders met the Collector, who had assured of action on their petition.