Madurai-based NGO Evidence has urged the State government to withdraw attempts to evict the Scheduled Caste residents of Samalapuram village near Palladam in Tiruppur district and take steps to issue pattas to the residents.
In a statement issued on Friday, Executive Director of Evidence A. Kathir said that a fact-finding team from the NGO visited Samalapuram on March 14, two weeks after the Water Resources Department on March 1 sent a notice to 135 families claiming that they had encroached on the banks of the Samalapuram tank and that the encroachments must be removed.
“There is a large gap between the banks of the waterbody and where the Dalit people reside. Moreover, they have constructed their houses till the main road. They have been residing here for nearly 100 years,” Mr. Kathir said based on the findings of the team. The SC residents possessed necessary government documents such as ration cards and voter identity cards and they had neither been affected by the Samalapuram tank nor damaged the waterbody, he added.
