Coming down heavily on the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its much-touted Dravidian model of social justice, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai said that like last year, this year too there has been a case of a Panchayat president belonging to the Scheduled Castes not being allowed to hoist the national flag on Republic Day.
He said that this year, Suguna Devendran, the Panchayat president of Kanchipuram Tiruppukuzhi was prevented from hoisting the flag by a DMK member.
This happened in spite of Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu writing to all District Collectors to ensure that such discrimination does not take place.
Annamalai mentioned that last year on Independence Day, a Panchayat president in was allowed to hoist the flag only when the BJP intervened.
Last year, Panchayat presidents in villages like Kunnampattu, Narapakkam and Myilai, in Chengalpattu district and Senthakkudi in Pudukkottai district faced problems on Republic Day.
A detailed survey carried out last year by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) had found several forms of discrimination against Dalit Panchayat presidents.
Some of them include not being allowed to hoist the national flag on Independence Day and Republic Day; not being allowed a chair in their offices, and denial of documents.
The DMK government is also under attack from various quarters including the BJP for its inability to arrest the culprits who mixed human feces in the water tank used by Dalits of Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai as it has been over a month, since the incident occurred.
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