TN farmer attempts suicide after repeated pleas to remove encroachments falls on deaf ears

VELLORE: Tension gripped Pavithram village near Tiruvannamalai town after a 40-year-old farmer attempted to commit suicide by hanging from a cellphone tower on Thursday afternoon.
P Vaidhyalingam took the extreme step after staging a protest for over six hours demanding that the district administration conduct a drive against encroachments and ensure basic amenities.
He climbed the 150ft tower around 2am with a mike. The villagers, on seeing Vaidhyalingam atop the cell phone tower, alerted the police officials attached to Veraiyur station.
Though Uma Maheswari, revenue divisional officer of Tiruvannamalai, tashildar Panneerselvam, and assistant superintendent of police, Tiruvannamalai, Ravali Priya Gandhapuneni, spoke to Vaidhyalingam for over two hours and tried to persuade him to come down, the farmer tried to hang himself using a cloth at about 12.20pm.
Firemen attached to Tiruvannamalai fire service station acted swiftly and climbed atop the tower and rescued Vaidhayanlingam, who was unconscious by then. He was rushed to Government Tiruvannamalai Medical College Hospital. His condition is said to be stable.
Vaidhyalingam told officials that he had submitted several petitions to officials, requesting them to do away with the encroachments in the village, and remove garbage on a regular basis. He also claimed that the Veraiyur police had filed a case against him for raising the issue.