The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Enquiry into “attacks” begins

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Enquiry into “attacks” begins

P. Sudhakar

By security personnel in Radhapuram union of Tirunelveli district

Forcible grabbing of lands alleged
Police get preliminary information

TIRUNELVELI: An enquiry into “attacks and intimidations” of the residents of Radhapuram union by the security personnel of the windmills has begun following instructions from the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, P. Kannappan, who has received many complaints on alleged forcible grabbing of lands by windmill administrations.

The preliminary information gathered by the police has justified the DIG’s dictum that most of the security personnel or ex-convicts had figured in the rowdies’ list with the police.

When Mr. Kannappan convened a meeting at Valliyoor on Sunday to understand the problems of the public, most of the speakers, all poor farmers from Irukkanthurai, Pazhavoor and Chettikulam where windmill intensity is quite high, complained that their lands are being forcibly grabbed by wind power generating units through their security personnel.

“If the windmills have to erect pole or towers on a particular land or lay cables to evacuate power, nobody from the administrative side will meet the land owner, but the security personnel will instruct the legal possessor of the property to sell the land for the price fixed by the company. If we resist, a barbed fence will come up around our land. If the land owner opposes the move, he will be forced to sign on documents and empty stamp papers,” said K. Selvaraj of Chettikulam.

When a huge windmill south of Chettikulam started burning due to electrical fault on an evening some months ago, the press photographers were not allowed to stand on the nearby Chettikulam bypass road.

A group of goondas, posing as the security personnel of the windmill, chased away the lensmen.

However, the locals, who were witnessing it from a distance, came to the rescue of the photographers.

“When we contacted the Koodankulam police station, the law-enforcers advised us not to take photographs of the fire accident,” recalls a reporter of a satellite channel.

However, “once their history is established, we’ll ensure that they don’t enter inside the southern districts of Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin,” said a top police official associated with this issue.

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