Centre directs TN to probe police abuse
Ministry for women, children responds to DC reports.
Chennai: Reacting to a news report about the inhumane treatment meted out to protesters by Kelambakkam police in Padur, the Union ministry of women and child development has directed the Tamil Nadu government to take speedy action.
In a mail marked to this correspondent and the home secretary of Tamil Nadu government, the ministry has written: “Please take an appropriate action at the earliest.”
The article, published on April 20 in Deccan Chronicle reiterated the intolerable treatment rendered by Kelambakkam police on Padur residents, especially women and children. In their desperate move to arrest the protesters who ransacked a tasmac shop relocated from the state highway, the Kelambakkam police set aside the human rights and indulged in an abusive treatment.
The police personnel visited the residences during midnight, used rude language on the women and arrested children below 16 years, without approaching the Child Welfare Committee of the Kancheepuram district. Many abandoned their village for more than a week, to escape arrest.
Even though an insider from the Kelambakkam police department admitted to having visited the residences during nights, inspector A. Govindaraj shooed them away as he said, “We have no strength to send police personnel on night rounds.”
Kancheepuram collector fails to keep his word
Kancheepuram district collector P. Ponniah failed to keep his promise to close the Tasmac shop, located close to a women’s toilet and a water pump in Padur. Fourteen days after he promised a group of 25 children who visited the office on April 24, the Tasmac shop continues to function. “They are now constructing a bar next to it. We believed in the collector’s assurances. So did the collector lie to the children?” asked Chengai Aanandan, a protester. Repeated calls to the Kancheepuram district collector went unanswered.