Kannur: The construction of the house of Dalit auto-driver Chitralekha resumed at Kattampally here on Tuesday with the UDF support. The government had issued an order cancelling the allotment of land to her by the previous dispensation saying her family owned a house at Edat in Payyanur. Her plight began in 2005 when CPM workers burned her auto-rickshaw as she allegedly challenged its unionists.
She had to flee her home after a series of attacks and casteist slur. UDF leaders Rjil Mukkutti and Sharafudheen Kallampuli were present when the works started in the morning. Abu Dhabi-based Green Voices is extending financial support to complete it. A host of UDF leaders including Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, KPCC president M.M. Hassan and K. Sudhakaran had visited her over the week expressing solidarity.
Chitralekha told DC that UDF leadership had assured her all support for challenging the government order in court and finishing her home. Green Voices involved in it after the intervention of local legislator K.M. Shaji, she said. Though rights groups were protesting against her being ostracised and extending her support in their own way, the mainstream parties were ignoring her till recently. The UDF regime allotted her five cents of land and Rs 5 lakh after protests at the collectorate here and the Secretariat in the state capital.
