Chennai, March 30 :    Chennai, March 30:  After the pain, comes the balm. The remedy may have come late, but Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa's visit to a remote hamlet where Dalits were at the receiving end of upper-caste violence sent across a message of reconciliation. The Tamil Nadu chief minister today visited Sankaralingapuram in Tuticorin district, where Dalit-upper caste clashes claimed one life in November last year. The chief minister visited a church on a day that falls between Good Friday and Easter, signalling that her government would not alienate the Dalits, most whom are Christian converts in the village. Last year, violent incidents in November claimed a constable's life and subsequent ransacking of several Dalit houses at Sankaralingapuram. Political parties and human rights activists have been demanding action against erring police officials, adequate relief to the victims and withdrawal of cases against 179 people. Jayalalithaa sought to avoid a replay of Kodiyankulam, where caste clashes in 1995 also contributed to the ADMK's rout 1996 Assembly polls. She chose to visit the violence-affected village even as a 12-hour bandh in Coimbatore district called by the Hindu Munnani to protest against the killing of a RSS pracharak evoked mixed response. Twenty buses were damaged in stone-pelting incidents in Coimbatore and Tiruppur. Jayalalithaa, who also met the slain constable's family and other affected policemen at Sankaralingapuram, urged the affected Dalit families to put aside the 'bitterness of the past' and cooperate with the government to restore peace and harmony in society. The chief minister distributed Rs. 13.33 lakh as compensation to 145 affected people. Jayalalithaa also visited houses that were targeted in the alleged counter-violence and surveyed damaged household goods like cots and cupboards.