PUDUKKOTTAI/MADURAI: Based on the instructions of Tiruchy range Deputy Inspector General of Police A Saravana Sundar, an 11-member police team headed by ADSP Ramesh Krishnan was formed on Saturday to probe into the incident of human excreta being mixed in the only water tank at Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai district.
Meeting press persons on the day in Pudukkotai, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan said, “We welcome the arrest of persons who followed the two-tumbler system and those women who hurled casteist slurs when the district collector and SC people entered the temple. Those who contaminated the water tank in Vengaivayal are still roaming free. The police should expedite inquiries and arrest those guilty as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, condemning the delay on the part of Pudukottai district administration and police department in identifying the persons who mixed excreta in the tank, executive director of Evidence, an NGO, A Kathir demanded the authorities to declare the district as atrocity-prone.
Based on a fact-finding survey conducted by the NGO members in the village on Friday, Kathir said caste atrocities were rampant in the region. “The Adi Dravidar community members had earlier protested against the caste Hindus’ practise of releasing water for the community only after they collected plenty of water for their own use. Following the protests, the SC people got their own tank around eight months ago.
Now, that tank has also been contaminated. The caste Hindus have also encroached on the stream behind the Adi Dravidars’ houses. Vengaivayal village, which earlier had a ward representative, was recently merged with another panchayat, due to which the village no longer has an elected representative,” he said.
Kathir urged the authorities to include section 3(1)(a) of the SC/ST Act in the FIR. He also demanded the government to provide Rs 1.2 lakh compensation and two acres of agricultural land to each villager, and the collector to allocate Rs 12 lakh for the development of each village housing SC people in Pudukottai.