Neduvakkottai villagers besiege Ponnar’s car

It is said that around 25,000 coconut trees, 400 acre of paddy and 750 acres of sugarcane were destroyed by the cyclone in the Neduvakkottai village alone. This apart, 90 per cent of the houses were damaged in which more than 100 houses had collapsed. Despite the adjacent villages limping to normalcy, the Neduvakkottai village is yet to receive power supply even after eight days of the devastation.  The people had already staged a series of protests as no official had turned to assess the damages including crop damage.

On Thursday evening, the villagers staged a protest and the officials who went there to pacify them, promised that the assessment would be done on Friday.

Despite the promise, the officials failed to turn up for assessments. In such a backdrop, the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan was on the way to visit Mannargudi region from Thanjavur. On learning about the minister’s trip, the people from Neduvakkottai assembled on the road and blocked the Union Minister’s car. The people also raised slogans against the state and Centre. They demanded the officials to come to their village and assess the damage immediately. They alleged that certain places in the Mannargudi region are intentionally avoided by the officials.

On information that the Minister was besieged, the officials rushed to the spot and held talks with them.

The officials assured the people in front of the Minister that they would arrive there to assess the damage, and then the people gave way to the Minister. Subsequently, Radhakrishnan continued his journey.