Tamil Nadu - Dindigul   

Neglect of the poor sparks protest

K. Raju

Villagers threaten to boycott polls

DINDIGUL: With elections round the corner, protests are flaring up at different places including hilly region in the district over neglect of the poor and downtrodden, denial of land pattas to the poor and landless agriculture labourers and failure to provide basic amenities such as drinking water and road connectivity.

People in rural areas from Palani to Dindigul and Natham to Athoor have threatened to boycott polls in order to focus their long-pending demands.

First, people, mostly landless agriculture labourers and tribal people on Sirumalai hill have announced that they would boycott the forthcoming Assembly polls. Simmering discontent and anger of peasants have reached the boiling point, as their demands were not only considered but also neglected totally.

Disgusted tribal people said that there was not even a promise from any politician to look into their grievances. Neither the ruling party nor the Opposition did take any initiative in this regard, they pointed out.

Residents of Kanvarayapatti in Sanarpatti union in Natham, home constituency of the Minister for Transport, R. Viswanathan, have decided to boycott the polls demanding proper road connectivity. They have been demanding proper roads for quite a long time. With no proper response from the administration and politicians, they took this drastic step. People at Ayakudi in Palani taluk have taken the `weapon' of poll boycott, as basic amenities were not provided to the 13th ward till date.

Despite implementation of development works in other wards, this ward was neglected by the town panchayat, they said and added that nobody including special panchayat administration took any step to change the pathetic condition of the ward.

People of T. Pudhupatti in Athoor and Karatazhaganpatti in Dindigul constituencies too plan to boycott polls.

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