Com Leelavathi : Valiant Fighter of Toiling Mass

YOU MAY BE ABLE TO KILL US, BUT CANT KILL OUR IDEAS AND DREAMS

Comrade K Leelavathi, the fighter who laid down her life for the cause of the people. April 23 is her Martyrdom Day. People of Madurai still holds her near to their heart. This time around her martyrdom day coincided with the election campaign in Tamil Nadu. This time Madurai is going to see a straight fight between the Culprits of Leelavathi's murder DMK and the Party for which she laid down her life CPIM.

Com Leelavathi was a political activist, fighter for social causes and an active participant in the women's movement, She was an active worker of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was the member of its Maduri District Committe. She was elected to the Madurai Corporation Council from Ward 59 (Villapuram) in September 1996 in the first ever elections held with one-third of the seats reserved for women. She was One of her election promises was to supply piped water to the people of her ward, most residents of which are economically backward people. For long, they had been buying water supplied by water tankers actually supplied by the coporation but was hijacked by a mafia and was supplied at abnormal prices and had been literally at the mercy of the lorry operators for their daily requirements of water. During times of acute scarcity, they found it difficult to get even a potful of water.

Leelavathi intervened on behalf of these people. She tried to regulate the supply in a fair manner and fought against the fleecing of the poor by the tanker mafia. When she was named a candidate of the CPI(M) for the corporation election, she promised the people that she would put an end to this unfair system. From the moment she assumed charge as councillor, her one-point mission was to bring tap water to her ward. She had to pursue her efforts both inside and outside the Council. She insisted that water supply be given priority over other development works and, in six months' time, triumphed in her mission. The entire city saw her as a crusader.

The pipeline was laid and even a trial supply of water was also undertaken. But a day or two before the supply was to have been formally inaugurated, Leelavathi was done to death by a group of six persons while she was returning from a shop. The wrath of the water tanker mafia as well as political rivalry was seen as the reason for the crime. The city of Madurai plunged into grief. Protest rallies were held in several parts of Tamil Nadu.

Even after her election to the Corporation Council at the age of 40, Leelavathi, a weaver by profession, and her husband Kuppusamy, a vendor of stainless steel utensils, continued to live in a single-room house, along with their three grown-up daughters. Her loom occupied most of the space in the house. A table fan and a black-and-white television set were the only other valuables in the house. Simple and unassuming, Leelavathi endeared herself to almost all sections of the people in her ward. She attended to their complaints with utmost sincerity. In the process, she had to confront several anti-social elements in the area. When the CPI(M) launched a demonstration against these elements, she was in the forefront. She gave her whole time to public service and party work. She became an enemy of these anti socials who actually had the supporting of DMK and its top leaders.

On 23 April 1998 while Com Leelavathi was going to shop to buy household things she was attacked brutally killed by a group led by DMK Ward secretary.

At the time of her death, one of the State vice-presidents of the Handloom Workers Union and a State committee member of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA).

You have shown us our way forward and you have been leading us as torchbearer in our journey forward. We remember You Comrade. We dip our Red Flag in our great memory. Lalsalam Com. Leelavathi.. Long Live Your memories..

Life Intolerable under DMK Regime : N Varadarajan

N Varadarajan

Public is leading a miserable life under the rule of DMK in Tamil Nadu,

N.Varadarajan, State secretary of CPI(M )charged while Addressing a massive meeting in support of the party's candidate P.Mohan, sitting MP at Madurai , N.Varadarajan accused the DMK government of causing hardship to the public with its policy of intolerance. Law and order has deteriorated to a new low as never before. The DMK could not fulfill its election promise of providing two acres of land to the landless poor, he said and added that the programme had been abruptly stopped after distributing lands to only 2 lakh people out of the 30 lakh who had applied for lands. Under the DMK rule, thousands of workers who were dependent solely on export industries in Karur, Tirupur have been deprived of their livelihood. Though health graph showed an upward trend in the State, the development in this sector is purely private centered. Still, most of the government hospitals and medical colleges lacked adequate stocks of medicine and staff, he charged.
When the neighbouring State of Kerala has allocated 30 per cent of their GDP for funding local bodies ,the TN government had increased its allotment by only 0.5per cent from 9 per cent in the current financial year, he explained. But the percentage that reached the public was meagre after the commission pocketed by others , he said. Violence and intolerance are the hallmark of the DMK party whose gangsters brutally murdered CPI(M) corporator comrade Leelavathi in broad day light in 1997. Rowdyism of Cheif Minister's son.M.K.Azhagiri in Madurai using his father's name has reached a stage where even co-operative elections could not be held properly in the district. Stating that the 87,000 persons had sought inclusion into the electoral roll in Madurai Lok Sabha constituency alone, Varadarajan alleged that it was the hidden agenda of the DMK party to ensure the success of Azhagiri in the polls.
The opposition parties had raised the issue and had complained to the Election Commission but no action had been taken far, he added.
DMK which was responsible for the death of three persons in Dinakaran office for publishing an anti party news, has no right to speak about democracy, people of Madurai, who had witnessed rowdyism and violence unleased by Azhagiri for some years should now vote for P.Mohan in order to maintain peace and democracy in the district, he added .

50000 people attended Campaign rally at Madurai

Madurai city witnessed a massive rally in support of comrade P.Mohan, CPI(M) candidate yesterday evening.More than 50 thousand people attended the rally.

Addressing the campaign meeting , AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa alleged that the DMK has plans to unleash violence during Chithirai festival scheduled on May 9. She called on the police department to make use of this opportunity to do away with the blots on the department for various incidents in the State, including the attack on advocates in the High Court in Chennai. She said that the attack on the CPI(M) MLA Nanmaran at Madurai and the murder of one Pandiarajan who was murdered for giving land to 'Marxists' to build temporary party election office were rehearsals for DMK's bid to unleash violence among the public. This attempt will threaten people to stay home on May 13 as well facilitating the DMK cadres to cast bogus votes on the polling day.

Charge against Maran:

Jayalalithaa said that she had received a petition stating that the CBI had come up with evidences supporting that there were misuse in 323 higher end telephone lines officially provided to former Union minister Dhayanidhi Maran and these lines were connected to a separate mini telephone exchange installed at Maran's Chennai home in January 2007. The CBI had found that these telephone lines were allegedly connected with the 'Sun TV' office where it was used to carry all sorts of signals, including the programmes which were aired by the Sun Network. She said that these lines had both basic rate and prime rate access for the transmission. Their usage had gone over 48 lakh units in March 2007 which was revealed in the CBI probe. She alleged that Maran had been misusing his power.

Jayalalithaa charged that the DMK had used its power to release the murderers of T Krittinan, former DMK Minister, and CPI(M) councillor Leelavathi, before they completed the term of conviction.

She criticised the family politics of Karunanidhi. She said that Karunanidhi had gained political mileage through 'Tamil language', but he had admitted almost all his garndchildren in Central Schools with 'Hindi' as the second language.