PUDUKKOTTAI: A protest by 300 caste Hindus from Iraiyur village resulted in the entrance to the Pudukkottai district collectorate being closed by police for at least two hours on Tuesday. The caste Hindus were demanding that the collector impose Section 144 on the neighbouring Vengaivayal village where members of a Scheduled Caste community live.
Vengaivayal has been in the eye of a storm since late December when human faeces was found in a tank supplying water to the SC residents. The case is being investigated by a CB-CID team but no arrests have been made yet, resulting in tensions simmering between Vengaivayal and Iraiyur, where caste Hindus reside.
The two villages fall under the Muttukkadu village panchayat. Tuesday’s dharna was dominated by residents of Iraiyur and other villages from the panchayat but not from Vengaivayal. Muttukadu panchayat president Padma Muthaiah also took part in the protest, which only ended after assurances from Collector Kavitha Ramu. Sources in the district administration said the collector had assured action against those who’d pasted posters naming children as culprits and told the panchayat chief the probe is proceeding in a fair manner.
The protest was triggered by agitations conducted by some outfits at Vengaivayal. On Monday, four members of the Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi protested atop the Vengaivayal overhead water tank with hammers and threatened to demolish it. A few weeks ago wall posters were pasted across the village naming some of the residents, including children, alleging they’d polluted the water tank and demanding action against them. Upset by these protests, mostly by outsiders, at Vengaivayal and the delay in the CB-CID investigation, the caste Hindus decided to picket the collector’s office. As hundreds gathered before the collectorate on Tuesday morning, the police closed the entrance gates for two hours as a precautionary measure.
While Padma Muthaiah refused to talk to reporters, her husband Muthaiya said, “We demand the collector impose Section 144 on Vengaivayal as frequent protests there may affect the ongoing investigation.” In the petition Padma gave to the collector, she requested the collector to take action on such outfits and impose prohibitory orders until the investigation ends.
“The culprits behind the mixing of human faeces in the water tank should be punished regardless of their background,” the petition said. K R Murugan, an SC resident of Vengaivayal, charged that Padma Muthiah had organise the protest as she is afraid of the probe’s outcome. “Since, the incident we have been struggling to get by. In this situation, if Section 144 is imposed it will add to our sufferings. We are not inviting any outfit to come and protest for us nor do we have the power to stop them,” he said.