264 villagers in Erode receive ST certificate

Erode: District collector H Krishnanunni handed over the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community certificate to the villagers of Thalavadi and its surrounding hamlets adjoining the Sathyamangalam tiger reserve (STR) in the district on Sunday evening. This was a long pending demand of the villagers.
The villages house people from Cholagarkal, Uraligal, and Lingayat communities. The villagers had made several representations to the district administration over decades for their community certificates.
Collector Krishnanunni, who came to know about this long-pending demand, directed Gobichettipalayam revenue divisional officer (RDO) Palanidevi and Thalavadi tahsildar Umamaheswaran to look into the issue. They subsequently conducted inquiries with the tribal people.
“During the inquiry, they came to know that none of the villagers were given the community certificates for several decades,” the collector said. “The RDO and tahsildar also came to know that the villagers were eligible to get the ST certificates.”
The collector visited Thalavadi on Sunday, interacted with the tribal villagers and issued the ST community certificates to 264 people.
The villagers said they had approached the district administration seeking community certificates for their wards since Independence.
“For no reason, the officials rejected our proposal,” said K Madaiyan, one of the villagers. “Without an ST community certificate, we could not get any government benefits, especially in education and for employment.”