6 claim ‘ownership of road’, erect stone in Katpadi PU

The six residents of Veerakal Medu village near Senur in Katpadi panchayat union have demanded the authorities to hand over the road as it is allegedly located on their land.

Stating that town bus route 16C (from Vellore to Labbai Krishnapuram which was operating 9 trips) stopped the trips from the last week of February, V Kumaran of the area said, “Six locals demanding that the road was on their property wanted it to be handed back to them and hence placed a huge stone ensuring that heavy vehicles were unable to use that stretch. Though village elders tried to talk to the six to remove the stone, they refused to heed to their pleas.” Another resident G Gopal said, “The road was laid twenty years after the aggrieved six persons donated the land and now after the erection of the stone, we are literally stranded as we have no public transport coming into the village. The most affected are students, women and the elderly.”

C Dhanapal of the village said, “As Vellore is 7 km away, we are now forced to use share autos which come only up to Senur located before our village. From Senur, we either have to walk 3 km to Veerakal Medu or pay additional charges to the same auto to reach our homes.”

Talking on the complaint given to the police, C Mani of the village said, “As soon as the problem started we preferred a complaint with the Virudampattu police. The police only received the complaint but no action was taken.”

The villagers were aggrieved that despite petitioning Vellore Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram on March 2, no action has been taken and so they again handed over the petition to the Collector on Monday. TNSTC officials had refused to accept the petition saying that they were ready to resume services once the stone on the road was removed by either police or revenue officials. Now the affected villagers are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that at least officialdom would come to their rescue.