Five of the total six panchayat members in the Vadapoothinatham village panchayat council submitted a memorandum to District Collector on Monday asking him to remove the panchayat president. They said that the panchayat president was not maintaining a transparent governance for the last two years. “The president has been showing us only the consolidated figures of revenue receipts, and that of the expenditures incurred for various works. But, project/work-wise spending of the funds are not given to us,” said M. Tamil Mani, member of Ward 2.
They accused the administration of inflating the bill amounts against the payment of goods procured for infrastructure improvement works.
When contacted, R. Mohanraj, the village panchayat president, denied the allegations and said that he had been presenting the receipts and expenditure statements regularly at the gram sabha meetings as well as in the meetings of the village panchayat council held once in every two months.
“All these members, who are now raising the accusations, have signed the minutes of the said regular meetings of the council and are now coming up with baseless allegations,” he said.
Water scarcityA section of people from Navithanputhur under Nanthavanampalayam panchayat, near Dharapuram, came with empty pots to the Collectorate here on Monday to draw the attention of officials to the drinking water scarcity faced by them for the last six months.
S. Murugan, a resident of the area, said that the water supply through the public distribution system had been lethargic during the last six months despite the matter was taken to the notice of the authorities. “Each of the about 100 families have been getting a pot of water through the distribution system once in a week, which is almost equivalent of not getting any water. “In this situation, people are forced to buy water either from private parties by paying Rs. 5 for a pot or walk long distances to the nearby hamlets to obtain requisite quantity of water,” he added.
