KRISHNAGIRI: Over 100 people staged a demonstration near Kaveripattinam on Monday against residents belonging to a caste Hindu community in the locality for allegedly opposing the allocation of free patta land to 80 people from the Adi Dravidar community.
A Madesh, one of the protesters and the state secretary of VCK cadres wing, told TNIE that former chief minister M K Stalin distributed free patta land to nearly 85,000 people in Krishnagiri district last year.
Of those, 80 were given to the people belonging to the Adi Dravidar community in Bannihalli village near Kaveripattinam, and 30 were allocated to the caste Hindus and others.
He said, "While the survey for the land parcels allocated to the caste Hindus was conducted three months ago, the survey for the Adi Dravidars' land was conducted last week and the survey stones were installed.
A few members belonging to the caste Hindu community removed the survey stone installed on the land parcels of Adi Dravidars, and a caste Hindu man allegedly assaulted an Adi Dravidar man.
Subsequently, Kaveripattinam VAO lodged a complaint at the Kaveripattinam police station and a case was registered in this regard." Further, Madesh accused Krishnagiri DSP Ramchandran of allegedly supporting the caste Hindus and demanded that a case under the SC/ST (PoA) Act should be registered in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, a section of caste Hindus from Bannihalli petitioned Krishnagiri Collector C Dinesh Kumar, demanding the cancellation of patta land allocated to Adi Dravidars near a government school in the area.
The petitioners alleged that many of the Adi Dravidars already own patta land and demanded that the latter be allocated land in a different location. The collector, however, refused to cancel the patta land allocated to the people from the Adi Dravidar community.
When TNIE contacted, Krishnagiri Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramchandran refuted the allegations and said he has acted impartially in the issue.
