The residents of the tribal villages of Semmanatham village panchayat on Yercaud hills have threatened to boycott the local body elections to protest against reservation of the post of panchayat president for the Scheduled Castes community ignoring the majority Scheduled Tribes community.
The residents, affiliated to various political parties, in a petition presented to Sundaram, Yercaud Panchayat Union Commissioner and the Returning Officer, said that more than 2,000 people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes community, which formed 99 per cent of the total population of the panchayat, resided in the villages spread over in the panchayat.
Ignoring their interest, the government reserved the post of panchayat president to the SC (women). The SC community accounted for only 95 voters.
This shocked the entire ST community. As the president’s post had not been allotted to the majority ST community, the memorandum said that they had decided to boycott the polls.
They urged the government to revert its decision reserve the president’s post for the ST community.
