Tamil Nadu villagers denied water for being Dalits?

Rameswaram: People from two villages in Ramanathapuram district staged a protest demanding better water supply. Residents of Pottithatti thronged the collectorate and staged a protest with empty plastic pots, urging the district administration to arrange immediate supply of drinking water.

Villagers said they were forced to stage the protest as they had been facing drinking water problem for more than a year and officials continued to turn a blind eye to their problem.

The officials dug a borewell and arranged water supply, but after the motor became faulty a year ago, the authorities removed it for repair but never reinstalled it, the villagers alleged. About 700 people lived in the village and they were forced to buy water, they said.

They alleged that the officials deliberately sidelined the village because the residents happened to be Dalits and sought the intervention of the collector. 

After receiving the petition, collector K Veera Raghava Rao directed Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, which supplied Cauvery water under the ‘Combined Water Supply Scheme’, and local panchayat officials to arrange water supply to the villages immediately either through pipelines or through tankers.