CHENNAI: More than a hundred students belonging to the Malayali community staged a protest at Kadambur in Erode district demanding community certificates from the government.

Over 15,000 people from 3,000 families belonging to the Malayali community live in the Kadambur hills for the six decades. While the people belonging to this community in Salem, Tiruvannamalai and Dharmapuri have received an SC community certificate from the government, despite repeated requests, people of the same community living in Kadambur and Bargur in Erode district have not received theirs.

This situation has led to hundreds of students from the community living in Erode losing out on various opportunities in education, employment and receiving government aid over the past 50 years.

Following this, students from 21 villages in Kadambur along with other residents of the villages staged a protest from morning to evening on Monday demanding community certificates. Despite holding talks with the Sathyamangalam Tahsildar, when their demands were not met, the protestors continued their demonstration for the second day on Tuesday holding placards and raising slogans.