The Tamil Nadu police have commenced a probe into the presence of human excreta in an overhead water tank of a Scheduled Caste (SC) colony in Pudukottai district.
When after drinking the contaminated water, the children started falling ill, the doctor treating them asked the colony residents to check the water quality.
Residents of Vengaivasal in Muttukadu panchayat in the Pudukkottai district complained to the police after finding that human excreta was dumped into the overhead water tank that supplies water to the colony.
Kumaran. R, a villager, told that the water smelt different and they checked the tank only to find a large quantity of human excreta dumped in the water tank. He said that the lid of the overhead tank which is made of cement could be lifted only by two persons and when they found excreta on Monday, they were shocked.
The Gandharvakottai MLA, M. Chinnadurai said, “The police have commenced an investigation and it seems that this is an act of miscreants. We have arranged water supply through an alternative route so that the people don’t suffer. Let the police find out the people behind this inhuman act and bring them before the law of the land.”
It is to be noted that in several villages of Tamil Nadu, caste is a major factor that leads to fights and killings, and dropping human excreta in water tanks is also not the first time in the state.
A local person, who does not want to be named, told, “This is not an act of miscreants, instead there is a planned move behind this. We got a water connection in 2017 after several years of struggle and now this has happened because someone does not like us getting a regular water supply and this is linked to caste. I expect the police to conduct an impartial investigation and bring the culprits before the public domain.”