Dalits want free housing plots retrieved

Tirupur: As the district administration failed to hand over free housing plots allocated to them for the last three decades, a group of people staged a novel protest by trying to cook at the collectorate in the city on Monday.
“The then unified Coimbatore district administration allotted free housing patta to more than 30 Arunthathiyar community families at Pullikalipalayam in Nilali panchayat near Kundadam in 1988. But so far, the plots were not handed over to our families,” K Ganesan of Kundadam said.
The families were still struggling to make both ends meet and they could not imagine about owning the land. They have been continuously requesting the district administration to give their lands but in vain.
“When we tried to erect thatched structure huts in the earmarked lands at Pullikalipalayam, it was opposed by a group of villagers, who intimidated us not to come to the lands again. A private person has encroached the land as he erected fencing, and he was trying to sell the land,” Ganesan said. The affected dalit families said they have staged sit-in near the land continuously for three days before reaching the collectorate on Monday. They continued the protest by trying to cook food at the collectorate. They brought vessels and vegetables for the stir, which they withdrew after the revenue officials pacified them.