Presidents of 31 village panchayats under the Karunkulam panchayat union submitted a petition to Collector Sandeep Nanduri on Monday accusing the Karunkulam panchayat union chairman of deploying his men to work in the development projects being executed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.
In a petition submitted to the Collector, the panchayat presidents, led by C. Arunachalavadivu, president of Confederation of Thoothukudi District Village Panchayats, said good number of development works had been taken-up in Karunkulam union under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme with the consent of village panchayat presidents and the secretaries concerned.
Even as the MNREGP works were progressing well as scheduled, the Karungulam panchayat union chairman was interfering in these works “unnecessarily” by deploying the workforce selected by him. Besides hampering the progress of the works selected under MNREGP, the “undue interference” was creating confusion in the village panchayat.
“Moreover, the panchayat presidents are being coerced to issue ‘work orders’ in a new ‘package system’ formulated by the District Rural Development Agency, which has been designed with the prime objective of hand-picking the contractor of the chairman’s choice. Hence, the Collector should intervene to restore the statutory rights of 31 village panchayat presidents under the Karungulam union,” they said.
Makkal Neethi Maiyam cadre, led by the party’s district secretary R. Sekar, submitted a petition seeking increased compensation of ₹1 crore to the family of constable P. Subramanian, who was killed by a history-sheeter on August 18 near Murappanaadu.
A section of the residents from Selseeni Colony, Aruna Nagar and Kausalyapuram, all falling under ward 50 of Thoothukudi Corporation submitted a petition seeking regular supply of drinking water.
