As the growing clout of its district secretaries has become a cause for concern after the Lok Sabha poll debacle, the DMK on Thursday constituted a six-member committee to make recommendations for simplifying and strengthening the administration of the district units.
The members of the committee are the former MLA, P.S. Thiruvengadam; the former Minister and MLA, Thangam Thennarasu; advocate K.S. Radhakrishnan; T.S. Kalyanasundaram of Thiruthuraipoondi; and S.L.D. Satchithanandam of Erode.
The constitution of the committee follows a resolution, passed at the party’s high-level strategy committee meeting, recommended that the possibility of strengthening and simplifying the district units be studied.
The important task of the committee, according to party sources, is to make suggestions for establishing a pattern for formation of district units.
Though Chennai has already been split into two district units — North and South — the party has decided to carve out one or two more units to ensure effective administration of greater Chennai whose boundaries have been extended further. The ruling AIADMK has already divided its Chennai district units into four because there are 16 constituencies in the district.
“There is need to maintain uniformity in size and structure when creating district units. As of now, Peramabalur and Ariyalur districts have only two Assembly constituencies each. On the other hand, Vellore comprise 13 Assembly constituencies and Villupuram and Kancheepuram have 11 constituencies each. Tirunelveli district comprises 10 constituencies and Coimbatore has eight constituencies,” a party leader said.
As the district secretaries were accused of laxity and indifference during the election campaign, the leadership feels that it is high time that they were cut down to size.
In fact, many district secretaries have been holding the post for more than two or three terms, and have assumed a larger-than-life image. “They pull the strings and nothing moves without their nod. Reorganisation of the district units will clip their wings,” said the source, adding that once the report was ready, the party would convene a general council meeting to ratify the recommendations.