Palmyra climbers allege harassment by police in Thoothukudi

Alleging police harassment, a group of palmyra climbers submitted a petition to Collector K. Senthil Raj in Thoothukudi district on Monday.

Alleging police harassment, a group of palmyra climbers submitted a petition to Collector K. Senthil Raj in Thoothukudi district on Monday.

The petitioners were led by Tamil Nadu Nadar Peravai district president S.M.T. Ravi Sekar. They said the palmyra climbers tapped neera (pathaneer) in various parts of the district between March and July every year and sold the natural health drink to consumers. Since tapping of toddy had been banned by the Tamil Nadu Government, they extracted only neera from the palmyra trees.

“However, the Thoothukudi district police accuse the palmyra climbers of tapping toddy and foist cases against them and torture them.” said Mr. Ravi Sekar.

Some of them were assaulted by the police when they objected to the registering of fake cases. The high-handed attitude of the police had left the palmyra climbers and their families, which got their paltry annual income only between March and July by selling neera and jaggery, in deep trouble. If the police atrocities against the palmyra climbers continued, they would approach the court and the human rights commission seeking justice, he added.

 A group of 35 visually impaired persons from Kovilpatti taluk submitted a petition seeking free house sites. Though petitions for free house sites for visually challenged persons living in Kovilpatti, Naalaattinpudur and Kazhugumalai had been submitted to the Revenue Divisional Officer, Kovilpatti, and the Tahsildar of Kovilpatti on several occasions, no step had been taken.

 “Hence, we have submitted the petition to the Collector hoping that he would identify a land in an appropriate area for giving free house sites to us, all belonging to below poverty line families. We believe that the Collector, who has given free houses to the families of widows in Sattankulam taluk, will fulfill our genuine appeal,” said Ravichandran, president of Kovilpatti Visually Challenged Persons Rehabilitation Trust.

 A group of Muslims from Kayathar submitted a petition appealing to the Collector to include in the village revenue records details of their houses built on free house sites given by the government in 2007.