Leftists want Dalit issues in Tiruvallur to be resolved

CHENNAI: Members of CPI (M) and Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) have warned the Tiruvallur district administration that Dalits of RK Pet would hold a sit-in protest at the collector's office if they were not allowed to construct houses in the patta allotted to them.

It was in 1996 when the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa gave away house site pattas to about 107 Dalit families at Raja Nagar near RK Pet but the caste Hindus were not allowing the Dalits to take possession of the land allotted to them ever since.

TNUEF Tiruvallur district president Ezhilarasan said that Vanniyars who are the dominant community in Raja Nagar are opposing the allotment of land to the Dalit families. "Whenever any officials go to the locality to measure the land, Vanniyar families prevent them from doing it," he said.

Dalit families have been boycotting the elections since the 2019 Lok Sabha, Rural local body polls and state assembly polls but no action was taken on their demand, he said, adding that last year, the State Human Rights Commission has ordered the revenue department officials to take steps to hand over the land possession to the Dalit families within one month and directed the government to pay a compensation of Rs 25,000 each to the affected families. “Even after that order, the revenue officials failed to act on it, ” he said.

CPI (M) and TNUEF held a protest on Friday at Tiruvallur bazaar seeking to allow Dalits to take possession of the land allotted to them and construction of bus stand on the land decided by the government at Vishnuvakkam

CPI (M) politburo member G Ramakrishnan who lead the protest said at Vishnuvakkam village, Caste Hindus are opposing the construction of a bus stand at government poromboke land. He added that they would collect money from the public to construct the bus stand.

Ezhilarasan said that Caste Hindus at Vishnuvakkam don’t want the Dalits to sit in front of them at the bus stops so they are opposing it. “The land for the construction of the bus stop was identified by the revenue officials. But the caste Hindus opposed it and moved to the Madras High Court which dismissed it. Despite the court order, the government is planning to construct the bus stand elsewhere. But Dalits want the bus stop to be built at the place identified initially,” he added.

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