Four months after DT Next reported about the existence of an ‘untouchability wall’ that separated about 200 Dalit families at Thokkamour, a village around 50 km from Chennai, near Gummidipoondi in Tiruvallur, was demolished by the district administration in the early hours of Monday.

The Revenue Divisional Officer of Ponneri and Gummidipoondi Tahsildar oversaw the wall demolition with the presence of police personnel. Five earth movers were deployed for pulling down the wall.

Y Vinoth of Thokkamour colony told DT Next that the wall was demolished by the officials on Monday at around 5.30 am using five bulldozers.

“Last evening the Village Administrative Officers visited the colony and asked the people to remove the things kept near the wall. On Monday morning, the wall was demolished in about 10 minutes. We are happy that finally the untouchability wall was removed,” he said.

Tiruvallur Collector Alby John Varghese said the wall was demolished after holding multiple rounds of talks at various levels with the Revenue Divisional Officer and Tahsildar. He said though other community people claimed the wall was constructed in 2016 with the consent of Dalits, it was decided to demolish the wall since the Dailt community felt the wall is discriminative and oppressive in nature. He said as a measure of an abundance of caution, the police force was deployed in the village.

CPM said the party’s Tiruvallur unit and TN Untouchability Eradication Front were holding prolonged protests against the untouchability wall at Thokkamour and Valavanthankottai near Uthukottai and the non-issuance of patta for Dalits in Rajanagar for the past six months. Both the walls were demolished and patta was issued to Dalits in Rajanagar.

It may be noted that Dalits were socially boycotted by Caste Hindus in the village after they sought demolition of an untouchability wall constructed around their settlement and to stop fencing of poromboke land that would deny entry to the temple and a pathway.