DHARMAPURI: Demanding a new burial ground, nearly 70 residents of Dokkampatti village in Irumathur panchayat staged a protest by carrying a bier to the public grievance meeting held at the Dharmapuri Collectorate on Monday. The people said the land in which they were burying their dead was sold off by the owner who wanted to submit a petition to the collector. However, they were briefly stopped by police from seeing the collector.
Speaking to TNIE, S Venkatesh, a resident of Dokkampatti said, “For the past five generations we have been burying our dead in a private land near our village. We started burying our dead on this land after the owner made a verbal promise to the village to provide 15 cents of land to bury and honour our dead. However last year the land was sold off and since then we have been prevented from burying our dead."
Another resident, K Saradha said, “We have made appeals with various officials in the past 12 months and so far no action has been taken. Our village needs a burial ground.”
J Mayilvannan, a resident of Dokkampatti said, “We had brought our Aadhar cards, ration cards and our voter id with the intention of returning it to the collector. We have no place to bury our dead and so what is the point of these government documents.”+
Police sources who commented on the matter said, “We initially stopped them only to prevent overcrowding. While the petitioner has the right to meet with the collector and other officials, they also have the responsibility to ensure the Monday Grievance Day proceedings are not disrupted. After talks with the protestors, over five petitioners were allowed to meet the officials and explain their demand.”
When TNIE spoke to revenue officials they said they will investigate the matter and ensure that their petition is addressed at the earliest.