VILLUPURAM: Tindivanam police booked a caste Hindu father-son duo for assaulting an Irular panchayat president, K Anbalagan (50), and his wife in Krandipuram village near Tindivanam on Monday. The duo had earlier been allegedly disrupting the duty of the president as he belongs to a Scheduled Tribe, claimed the president.
According to Anbalagan’s complaint, panchayat projects were not properly alloted for the village and only recently Rs 35 lakh was disbursed under the Anna Marumalarchi scheme for building a panchayat office. However, caste Hindu sub-contractor and union treasurer of DMK Thirugyanam and his son Mahesh Babu had allegedly opposed the construction of the office and stopped the project.
A 50-year-old resident Ramalingam told TNIE, “Anbalagan has been targeted by local politicians because he is an Irular and any development he brings to the village was stopped by creating one controversy or another. Every time the villagers resolve it by conducting a council meeting.”
According to village sources, though Anbalagan was selected unopposed for the president post, his functioning had been vehemently restricted by local caste Hindus including Thirugyanam. The village lacks a panchayat president office despite funds being allotted for it, official sources said.
Anbalagan stated that on Monday him and his wife visited the construction site of a village project but Thirugyanam, Mahesh Babu and their men, who were already there, argued that construction can’t go on at the spot.