The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Youth assaults woman councillor of Tiruneermalai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 17, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Youth assaults woman councillor of Tiruneermalai

Staff Reporter

Janakiammal was hearing complaints from residents on flood relief at time of attack She was hearing complaints on flood relief

TAMBARAM: A woman councillor of the Tiruneermalai Special Village Panchayat was hospitalised after she was allegedly assaulted by a youth during distribution of relief to rain-affected families on Wednesday.

Chromepet police said the attack could have been a fallout of personal enmity.

Janakiammal of the AIADMK (twelfth ward councillor) was interacting with residents who alleged that they were left out while taking the list of affected families for relief.

Suddenly a youth pounced on her and attacked her with a scissors on the chest and legs.

She started to bleed profusely and was admitted to the Chromepet Government Hospital. Police are investigating.

Protests continue

Protests by residents seeking flood relief took place in many parts of southern suburbs.

They charged the officials with having ignored them while preparing the list of affected families.

The officials told them that those living in concrete houses, especially multi-storeyed ones, were not eligible for relief.

Only those living in thatched huts whose houses were either partially or completely destroyed or in whose houses water had entered alone could apply. But the residents were not convinced.

Many of them thronged the offices of their local bodies with ration cards demanding that they be issued tokens to collect cash or cheque for Rs. 2,000, a dhoti and sari, 10 kg of rice and a litre of kerosene.

Names not in lists

The complaint of most of the residents was that a couple of officials arrived in government vehicles, surveyed their area and noted down their names. But when they went to the relief distribution centres, their names were not in the lists. They took up the matter with Village Administration Officers but in vain.

Barge into leaders' houses

Some of them even barged into the houses of local functionaries of political parties. Residents of Madipakkam surrounded the house of P.A.J.K. Jayachandran, AIADMK town secretary of Ullagaram and Puzhuthivakkam.

Despite his telling them that he was not a government official or an elected representative, they did not budge.

They left only after getting an assurance from him that the matter would be taken up with the local body authorities and the State Government.

Protests were held at Thoraipakkam, Pallikaranai, Madipakkam, Mudichur, Alandur, Ullagaram, Vanuvampet, Kovilambakkam, Nanmangalam, Vettuvankeni, Karapakkam and Thoraipakkam.

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