A number of councillors at the District Panchayat meeting held here on Monday urged the district administration to take steps to grant exemption to the District Panchayat councillors from the toll fee at the National Highways. They explained that they incurred a huge expenditure every month as they had to use the National Highway several times a day as part of their duty.
The councillors said they had to shell out huge amount of money towards toll fee. Tiruchi was basically an agriculture-based district and a majority of councillors had to visit and revisit Tiruchi as various offices are located in the city. All elected representatives should be exempt from the toll fee. Pointing out that Members of Parliament were exempt from the fee, they wanted similar benefit for district panchayat councillors.
T. Rajathi, District Panchayat president who presided over the meeting, said that she would take up the matter with the district authorities for necessary action. She said that the councillors had been making the plea for the past several months.
A number of councillors underlined the importance of the presence of officials at the meeting for expeditious redress of their grievance.
Although they had been voicing their grievance, they could not get any concrete assurance because not many officials were present at the meeting.
Ms. Rajathi said she would take immediate action in this regard.
E. Kanchana, a councillor, said the State government implemented various people-oriented schemes and the supply of drinking water at a fair price had gone down well with the masses.
N. Swaminathan, vice-president of District Panchayat, spoke.
