Tax consultant R. Santhana Pandian of K. K. Nagar in Chennai had come to his native village Irumankulam near Sankarankovil in Tenkasi (Reserve) Parliamentary constituency not to cast his vote but to strengthen the village’s collective decision to boycott the poll.
A huge flex banner kept near the 12-foot-wide road branching out from the Sankarankovil - Puliyangudi highway to the sleepy hamlet of Irumankulam announces unequivocally the residents’ decision of boycotting the poll and the reason behind it. “Since you (the government) have given permission for reopening a closed stone quarry and also for the operation of a blue metal crusher unit near the reopened quarry and in a land close to Paambukovil Santhai despite our stiff resistance, we boycott the elections,” the banner announces.
With the banner attracting the attention of every passer-by, revenue and the police officials rushed to the village with the sole appeal: “Drop the poll boycott decision”.
However, the determined villagers boycotted the poll on Friday. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sanakarankovil, M. Sudhir and the revenue officials camped in the village to hold talks with the senior citizens and the youth of the hamlet in a bid to break the ice as only 45 out of the 1,263 votes in Irumankulam were polled till noon.
“The quarrying is going on in 15 acres of land in between two hillocks near Irumankulam has effectively stopped the flow of rainwater into two tanks – Periyakulam and Thonukaalkulam, which nourish crop raised on over 1,000 acres of land including paddy (if water is abundantly available in the tanks), cotton, maize etc. by our villagers. After permission was granted for quarrying, the flow of water to these two tanks almost stopped killing farming operations of Irumankulam. We’re boycotting the election only after our repeated appeals were just trashed by the official machinery,” said Mr. Santhana Pandian.
With the villagers being relentless, only 10 votes – 106 villagers and 10 service votes - were polled till 6 p.m. in Irumankulam booth.
“No official had time and patience to listen to our repeated pleas over the past three years as they back quarrying for reasons best known to everyone. The election boycott decision has brought them to our village now. Even now, they want us to vote and are not ready to consider our plea. So we are determined to win our goal at any cost,” said P. Periyadurai, a postgraduate and farmer.
Residents of K. Karisalkulam village on Sankarankovil – Kazhugumalai Road, having 1,045 votes, too boycotted the poll. The villagers said poor infrastructure in their hamlet is the reason behind their boycotting the election. “The petitions we submitted on several occasions were trashed and hence we have ignored the officials appeal of withdrawing the poll boycott,” the villagers said. Consequently, only ten votes had been polled till noon in the K. Karisalkulam booth, the agents claimed.
The police initially did not allow reporters who visited K. Karisalkulam to meet the Presiding Officer of the booth in the hamlet. Only after intervention of senior officials, the reporters could meet the Presiding Officer and the Polling Agents of candidates.
Similarly, the villagers of Pallikottai and Nellai Thiruththu near here also boycotted the parliamentary elections condemning the alleged official apathy in sorting out their issues pertaining to drinking water supply.
“Since the pumping of water to an overhead tank and supply of drinking water to the residents is a longstanding problem, we had submitted petitions to the officials on various occasions to sort-out this issue. But the officials were not interested in finding an micable solution to our problem. Hence, we’ve boycotted the election,” the Nellai Thiruththu villagers said.
