Chennai, April 19 (IANS) Residents of the Vengaivayal Dalit colony voted in the Lok Sabha elections after Tamil Nadu revenue officials persuaded them to do so on Friday, just before polling ended.
The 30 families who are residents of the Vengaivayal Dalit colony in Pudukkottai District had boycotted the elections over failure of the Tamil Nadu CID to arrest the culprits who put human faeces in their overhead drinking water tank
They had announced that they would boycott elections unless action was taken.
During the day, the residents held a protest with placards that read, “We had human faeces and You are having your vote. Why should corpses have vote? We who drank the water mixed with human faeces will not VOTE. Why should we vote?”
There were allegations that upper caste people had mixed human faeces in the drinking water supplied to the Dalit colony that was detected in the water tank on December 26, 2022 and led to a major uproar.
Earlier in the day, K Shailaja, a resident of the Vengaivayal Dalit colony told IANS, “It is going to be two years since the incident took place, but we haven’t got justice as yet. We have been traumatised by this heinous incident. There was a serious investigation when the issue hit the headlines and now nothing is happening.
“Politicians come to us only during elections and we have decided to boycott the Lok Sabha polls.”
“People of the village were not even able to travel by bus to attend a family function in the neighbouring village as police suspect that we may be going for a protest. We are under watch while the culprits roam free,” said MK Velu, another resident.
“To hold a function, we have to get permission from the Deputy Superintendent of Police and Superintendent of Police. We are boycotting this Lok Sabha election as we don’t have any other option left,” he added.
He said that with constant police presence, the village feels like an open prison and they want an end to this kind of torture.
–IANS
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