KARUR: Over 150 villagers from Lalapettai and its neighbourhood staged a novel protest on Sunday by paying ‘homage’ to a railway gate that had been closed for over five years. Besides, women from nearby villages performed an ‘oppari’ (wail) for the ‘dead’ gate.
The closed gate had affected movement of people and vehicles from over 40 villages attached to four village panchayats including Pillapalayam, Kallapalli, Karupathur and Sinthalavadi village panchayats for the past five years, since they had to take a detour of over three kilometres to reach their destinations.
The protesters committee told ‘Express’ that if the railway officials did not pay heed to their protest this time, villagers would stage a rail roko on February 9. The protesters demanded that the Railways open an alternative level-crossing at the place. The gate was shut following the opening of an overbridge adjacent to it.
On January 11, 2009, the railway gate adjacent to the road leading to four village panchayats through Lalapettai village was shut permanently. The overhead bridge was completed in 2009 at a cost of Rs 32 crore. Following this, government buses also took different routes to reach their destinations.
Though the overhead bridge helped easy movement of heavy vehicles plying between Kulithalai and Karur along the national highway, the closed railway gate prevented the public from getting immediate access to NH-67 or to the river Cauvery on the other side of the national highway. Ever since its closure, villagers are forced to take a detour for over two to three kilometers through very bad roads to reach the national highway, or to reach the river Cauvery, which flows just 250 meters beyond the railway gate.
Nagaraj, a resident of Lalapettai, told Express that farmers cultivating betel vines, banana and flowers found it difficult to bring their produce to the roadside shandies to sell them. Also, it is hard to take ‘Theertha Neer’ from river Cauvery for the Maha Marimman temple. The most challenging task for people from villages including Lalapettai, Pillapalayam, Kallapalli, Vittakatti, Mahilipatti and a few others, is to carry the dead over the closed railway gate, to perform the last rites, since the crematorium is located on the banks of the Cauvery, he added.
Guna, a protester, said, “The villagers placed two options before officials. The first was to either to open the gate or to constructing a subway to facilitate a crossover of the railway track. There were many protests on the issue earlier, but all went in vain. Hence, the agitators had to stage this peculiar protest.”
Southern Railways, Salem division officials told ‘Express’ that the gate had been shut in lieu of the overhead bridge, as per a Government Order (GO), and hence, there was no possibility to open the gate for traffic. However, a proposal for a subway was under consideration, but it had some practical problems, he added.
Caption for 11y-rail: Villagers paying homage to the closed railway gate at Lalapettai in Karur on Sunday | Express
