Ooty: While Kodanad estate laborers are feeling sad for Sasikala, said to be
the virtual owner of the Kodanad tea estate, nearby tribal villagers said
that they were hardly benefited by the ‘Kodanad estate management’.
Stating that the Supreme court verdict “has saddened” the estate community, one Sivayan, a plantation worker in the estate said that Ms.Jayalalithaa, whenever she was here, used to converse with estate workers and redress their grievances. Ms. Sasikala would come around the estate, but rarely talk to the workers, he added.
Observing that the reports appearing in the media that Kodanad will be attached has become a cause for concern and made her ponder over the future, Ms. Vasantha, another plantation worker in the estate, said that she had been working in the estate for the past 30 years. She, nonetheless, added there was nothing much to complain so far, as the management took care of its staff. Only what awaited them in future worried them, she emphasised.
However, some of the tribal community people, residing around the hamlets around the estate opined that the estate management did little for the people living around, except for opening an ATM centre and constructing a building to house a school and PDS outlet in Kodanad.
