Residents, folk artistes seek house site pattas

Hundreds of residents of Chettinayakanpatti and Kallipatti near Dindigul gheraoed Dindigul Collectorate along with their family members on Monday urging the authorities to grant house site pattas to them. They said that it was a long pending demand.

The residents came to the Collectorate with their belongings including utensils, stoves and firewood. They staged a protest and urged the authorities to grant them house site pattas.

According to the protesters, the residents of Chettinayakanpatti Adi Dravidar Colony were allotted land in Alakkuvarpatti in 1998. Many of them had built houses and moved in. The people were maintaining the place and were also paying the taxes.

The residents said they had applied for the house site pattas. However, no action was taken so far by the authorities to provide the pattas. The residents said since the grievances were not looked into they had no choice but to protest to draw the attention of the authorities.

There was commotion on the Collectorate premises as police personnel attempted to seize the belongings of the residents. Later, the officials held talks with the residents. After the officials assured them that the issue would be looked into and appropriate steps would be taken in this regard, the residents withdrew their protest. The authorities told them that an inspection of the area would be carried out.

Folk artistes submitted a petition to the Dindigul Collector demanding free house site pattas. They said there were around 2,000 nattupura kalaignargal in the district and 300 of them were part of an association. They said they were under financial stress and urged the authorities to grant them the house site pattas. The artistes said they were finding it hard to make ends meet. Most of them were living in rented premises, they said. The artistes also sought land for constructing an office building.