Village students hit streets in protest

On Monday, more than 100 students from Kathiramangalam, who were studying in schools located in Aduthurai, Kumbakonam and Kuthalam, boycotted their classes and took out a rally in their village by gaging themselves with black cloth. The elders too joined them. The rally from the Vellala Street culminated at Karuppati Street where the villagers squatted and raised slogans demanding the ONGC. 

On the announcement of District Collector A Annadurai about talks with the protesting villagers, they said that the residents would be present on the condition that the 10 persons, who struggled for their rights, should be released unconditionally and the cases against them were dropped. Meanwhile, the ONGC workers replaced the damaged pipelines using earthmovers amid tight police security in the village. 

In Thanjavur, PR Pandian, president of the coordination committee of the All Farmers Association, submitted a petition to the District Collector saying that the ONGC did not get the clearance from the TNPCB for drilling at Kathiramangalam. He also said no public hearing was held for exploration at Kathiramangalam and hence it is unlawful.  Later, talking to reporters, he said, his association would file a case against the Collector too for allowing unlawful operations of the ONGC.

A meeting was held in Chennai to condemn the police violence against the peaceful protesters in Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur district, who gathered after a leakage occurred in one of the oil wells of the ONGC.

Speaking through video, Shanthi, a resident of Kathiramangalam, recalled the ordeal the villagers went through. “By 6 pm, two high level Police officials had come in and within a few minutes, a fire broke out nearby and the Police used this opportunity to start lathicharging the villagers. Some of the people were arrested and dragged to the station. The officials were using abusive language and threatening that they will put a false case against us. All of us dispersed,” she recalled. 

G Sundar Rajan, advocate and environmental activist, said, “When the Cauvery management board has not been set up, the farmers are not getting water and the groundwater table is also going down, due to ONGC’s exploration activities in these areas,” he said.  The meeting was also attended by Thirumavalavan, president of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), M H Jawahirullah, politician and Mallai Sathya of MDMK. 

However, the ONGC officials on Monday stated that their drilling or oil extraction activities, had nothing to do with the contamination or depletion of ground water resources. The company, at a press meet here, said that there was no coal-bed methane (CBM) or shale gas exploration in the state. ONGC Cauvery basic manager T Rajendran said, “It takes barely five minutes to close the well. But the villagers didn’t allow our men to repair it. There was nothing we could do.”

Leaders of left parties on Monday condemned the police attack on people of Kathiramangalam. CPI state secretary R Mutharasan, who led the campaign team, which toured Thanjavur district, said, “The police acted against the people of Kathiramangalam, who protested peacefully against the ONGC after an oil spill.  Meanwhile, in Coimbatore, CPM state secretary G Ramakrishnan also condemned the ‘brutal’ attack unleashed by the police on the villagers of Kathiramangalam.