All Doors shut on kin of '14 victims

All Doors shut on kin of '14 victims

J Shanmugha Sundaram

Tiruvannamalai: Twenty-three-year-old Pavithra of Thanniyur hamlet in Athimur panchayat, Tiruvannamalai, does not mind taking to the tough job of cutting sugarcane. All that this young widow now thinks about is the future of her two daughters, aged five and two years. 

Like her, 20-year-old Rekha, also a widow, also cuts sugarcane to feed her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, while 50 year-old Poomalli struggles to make ends meet after she lost her son, the sole breadwinner of the family. 

It is almost a year since the three women lost their sole breadwinners. A common string binds them with the 20 families, who lost their men in controversial surrounding twin  encounters by Red Sander Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) in Seshachalam Reserve Forest on April 7. The trio – Vijayakanth (25), Sasi (25) and Venkateshan (26) - was also gunned down by the special task force during an alleged encounter on May 27 last year in Guddeddula Banda in Shyamala Forest Range.

While various quarters are fighting for justice for the families of the 20 men, these three families have been living amidst poverty and isolation for nearly a year now. The young widows bemoaned that the government officials were looking them down and spoke ill about their husband when they approach for the financial aid for widows.

 “I met government officials seeking widow pension, but the officials categorically said “no”. They even spoke ill about my husband and tagged him as criminal (red sander smugglers),” said Pavithra with tears in her eyes. Rekha has also echoed the same.