Mullaperiyar row: Tamils in Idukki district start moving to TN

Dec 16, 2011 - AR. Meyyammai |

Madurai

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Tamils in Idukki district of Kerala have started migrating to homeland following alleged attacks on plantation workers. As many as 168 people, including 80 women and children, residing in Udumbanchola, Parathodu, Kochanparai, Chemmannar and Thalaiyankaval moved to Thevaram in Uthamapalayam taluk on Thursday.

Police sources said about 2,000 Tamils crossed over in the past week after a few of them were allegedly attacked over the Mullaiperiyar dam row.

The migrants claimed some men attacked them and stoned their houses after the Supreme Court dismissed Kerala’s petition seeking to reduce the dam water level from 136 feet to 120 feet.

“The district administration provided food and arranged transportation to their native villages after giving them some money,” a revenue official said, adding that some of them were registered labourers living in Kerala for decades.

On Wednesday night, 50 families reached Bodi, just across the border, by foot.

Eswaran of Karianmala said, “I have two acres of cardamom and have been living in Kerala for the past 30 years. My land was ransacked on Tuesday and my family assaulted.”

Thangam of Karithodu said the sick and the injured were denied medical treatment and police were spectators to the attacks. With the arrival of migrants, many villagers in the Cumbum valley, which was limping back to normalcy, resorted to road blockades.

They felled trees at Lakshminaickenpatti in Theni district and burnt tyres on roads, a policeman said, adding that traffic was affected for four hours.

People in Thevaram provided food and accommodation to the migrants. Those in Meenakshipuram went to a nearby hillock and refused to climb down in protest against the attacks on Tamil plantation workers in Kerala. Incidents such as burning the effigies of Kerala chief minister Oomen Chandy were also reported.

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