SRIKAKULAM: Tension prevailed after the villagers prevented the kin of the deceased from attending the last rites as the two families from the village were under social boycott for the last two years. The issue came to light when the victims approached the police on Thursday night.The incident was reported from Innesupeta village in Ichchpauram rural police station limits in Srikakulam district. According to sources and local police, Dunga Yerramma, a 65-year-old woman, died on Thursday while undergoing treatment at Ichchapuram hospital. The villagers rushed to the cremation ground for performing last rites.
Meanwhile, members of the banned families from the village, against whom the village heads imposed social boycott two years ago, rushed to the cremation ground. Witnessing the banned people coming to the cremation ground, village heads raised objection and entered into heated arguments with them.
However, villagers made it clear that they would leave the place if banned people attended the cremation. With no alternative, the two families had to stay away from cremation. Taking a serious note, they filed a complaint against the village heads for imposing social boycott.
Almost two years ago, villagers thought of laying a connecting road to the village from the nearby main road. Almost all the farmers, having their lands on way to the proposed road, agreed to cede their lands while the relatives of the deceased Isuru Papamma and Damayanti had obstructed the move later and refused to cede their land for the road.
Taking a serious note of it, village heads imposed ban on the two families for their noncooperation for development. Since social boycott is a crime, some educated people from the village brokered a compromise between both the parties. The victims, Papamma and Damayanti, said that the villagers did not attend any functions and parties in the last six months and no labourers from the village came to work in their agriculture- related works.