Salem: A section of the Scheduled Caste people living on the Yercaud hills in Tamil Nadu's Salem district has issued has threatened to boycott the upcoming assembly polls over some civic issues, chiefly among them the pathway to the graveyard.
Precisely, it is over 300 families residing in the ST Colony at Nagalur in the neighbourhood of Yercaud located on the Servarayan Hills, who have been miffed over the nonchalance on the part of the babus and netas towards their demand for restoration of their right to use a pathway to the graveyard.
For the past three days, they have been agitating, holding aloft black flags and flaunting them atop the roofs of their houses.
It is learnt that the people, who had constructed the graveyard on the poromboke land over 50 years ago, have been using it for holding cremation rituals for the dead.
Also Read: TN BJP candidate drops Modi from campaign ads
Against this background, a private coffee estate management has for the past few years blocked the pathway to the graveyard, claiming its ownership.
This annoyed the residents who, in turn, took the issue up with the Salem District Collector and Yercaud MLA Chitra through memorandums, but no action has been taken over their demand till now.
As the elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly are drawing close, the embittered people have been bringing their burning issue to the attention of the powers-that-be for the past three days with their agitation, thus putting off political candidates’ attempts to woo the voters.
The black-flag agitation, they hope, will help their issue get into the spotlight, at least this time.
The chief of the Nagalur ST Colony Krishnakumar said, “The coffee estate proprietor based in Salem has now denied us access to the pathway to the graveyard that we have been using for over 50 years, claiming that rightfully he owns the place. This has put us in a fix. So, the government must intervene in this matter and restore the right of using the graveyard pathway to us and take action against the estate owner.”
Also Read: I-T seizes Rs.11 crore from AIADMK Minister's kin in Chennai
Krishnakumar further said, “If the government prefers indifference to action over our issue, we will return our Adhar card and ration card to it. Moreover, we will abstain from voting in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Nobody from our colony will go to the booth to exercise our franchise.”
He rounded his comment off with a stronger threat that if anyone in their colony died, they would carry the body all the way to the government office and dump it in front of the office, intensifying their agitation.”
This election boycott threat has become the talk of the town in the Yercaud Assembly constituency, creating ripples of surprise among the candidates in the fray.
