People of Nallurvayaal have risen in protest demanding that their village be renamed to its original name, which is now called ‘Karunya Nagar’, named after Karunya University belonging to Christian pastor Paul Dhinakaran.
Karunya University, run by Christian evangelist Paul Dhinakaran, is located near the Velliangiri Hills in Coimbatore district. It was established as an engineering college in the year 1986 at the village of Nallurvayal. It is said that the local tribes living in the village were removed from their habitat. Post its arrival, the village was renamed as ‘Karunya Nagar’ which is now dotted with churches and ‘prayer halls’.
The village which is officially known as Nallurvayal in all government records however has police station, post office and telephone exchange identifying their location as Karunya Nagar. Boards and milestones also have ‘Karunya Nagar written on them.
After Paul Dhinakaran made news for hoarding crores of money and gold in his Karunya University premises which came to light during the raid by Income Tax Department, villagers have used the attention brought to their to village and have risen in protest demanding that their village be renamed to Nallurvayal.
A group called Nallurvayal Meetpu Kuzhuvinar (Nallurvayal Rescue Team) has been formed. The group had undertaken a protest rally and a signature campaign in the nearby Alandurai town to prevent the usurpation of their village by Paul Dhinakaran. Police arrested more than 350 people who took part in the demonstration leading to tense situation. Following this, more than 500 members sat in protest on the road holding placards of #SaveNallurvayal
The village panchayat had under the chairmanship of the Panchayat President Kittusamy convened a meeting and passed a resolution to change the name of Karunya Nagar in government offices in the Madvarayapuram panchayat area of Coimbatore to ‘Nallurvayal’. The panchayat meeting was attended by village panchayat Vice President Vetrivel, Panchayat Secretary Devi and 11 other members.
Coming to know of this, Thondamuthur Regional Development Officer (RDO) Jayakumar contacted the panchayat leader and had reportedly asked based on whose permission they passed the resolution. The panchayat members had told him that they need not take any permission to pass a resolution on the demand of the villagers. The RDO had then told them they could have informed him before passing the resolution. They were then told to appear before the District Collector Rajamani.
The Panchayat President, Vice President, Secretary and a few others went to meet Collector Rajamani. Srinivasan, Assistant Director, Rural Development Department (Panchayat) was present during the meeting. The officials had received the book in which the details of the resolution passed was recorded. The Collector had reportedly told the panchayat members that they could have informed before taking up such a resolution to which the panchyat member showed them a copy of the official gazette in which the village was mentioned as ‘Nallurvayal’.
Collector Rajamani was quoted saying in Tamil news daily Dinamalar that the members were not called for any inquiry and that they had come only to show the information. He had said that he is studying the situation and will take steps accordingly.
Meanwhile, the villagers have now blackened the milestone and boards with ‘Karunya Nagar’ and have erected a new board with the village’s original name ‘Nallurvayal’. A movement #SaveNallurvayal has been started by the villagers now.
Kudos to the villagers near ,#ConversionMafia Paul Dhinakaran's Karunya University in TN.
The locality was renamed to 'Karunya Nagar'. They have fought a battle to get their original name of 'Nalloor Vayal' back. pic.twitter.com/dy7nEOQCTE
— Mission Kaali – Say No To Conversion (@missionkaali) February 4, 2021
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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