Madurai couple attempts suicide to get back EB connection

When the grievance redressal day meeting was in progress on Monday, the Collector was busy collecting the petitions. The couple, who were standing in the queue, suddenly doused themselves with kerosene when they neared the Collector. Sensing trouble, others standing near-by raised an alarm. Policemen on security rushed and foiled the attempt of the couple. Soon, they were whisked away from the Collectorate.

The couple, Gubendran and Shanthi, from Ambattayanpatti near Usilampatti said that they were owned a two-acre land, an ancestral property. The free electricity connection to their land was obtained by Gubendran’s father. In 2012, the TNEB officials suddenly snapped the EB connection to the land by saying that the post was in a porombokke land. “We approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court and obtained an order to reinstate the connection within 8 weeks. Despite the order, the officials did not restore the power to our farmland,” Gubendran said.

“For the past two years, we were struggling hard to get the connection back. But the TNEB officials demanded a bribe for restoring the connection,” he said and added “Last year we suffered a huge crop failure. Unable to bear the loss and make both ends meet, we decided to commit suicide.”