Seeking free house sites to the homeless below poverty line families living in thatched sheds on unused government poramboke lands, the All India Democratic Women’s Association members submitted a petition to Collector V. Vishnu during the weekly grievances redressal meet held at the Collectorate on Monday.
The petitioners, led by M. Latha, district president, AIDWA, said the government, which was allotting vast tracts of lands to the investors at subsidised cost, should create ‘land bank’ by pooling unused poramboke lands to be given to the homeless below poverty line families for constructing permanent houses.
Since these families are now living with their children in thatched sheds built on government poramboke lands, the government should consider giving these lands to them by providing them ‘pattas’.
As the community hall built in Shankar Nagar on Tirunelveli outskirts is yet to be put to use, the Collector should instruct officials to inaugurate it immediately so that it would be of great help to the public of the area.
Since the prescribed wages of ₹ 281 per day is not being given to the labourers being hired under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, the Collector should weed out this irregularity. As a good number of below poverty line families is living in the town panchayat and municipality areas also, the MNREGP scheme should be extended to urban areas also, the AIDWA members said.
A group of people from Madhudiyarkulam under Malaiyankulam village panchayat under Cheranmahadevi Taluk submitted a petition seeking a ration shop in their hamlet, having 240 ration cards. The petitioners said the villagers had to go to Malaiyankulam, situated about 6 km from Madhudaiyarkulam, for buying the essential commodities from the ration shop. Since there is no proper road to connect these two hamlets, the cardholders have to cross the ranches, which would be slippery whenever it rained.
“When we decided to boycott the local body elections, the officials pacified us with the assurance of sanctioning a separate ration shop for our village. Accepting this assurance, we, after constructing a building for the ration shop, cast our votes. However, the officials failed to fulfill their promise,” the villagers said.
A group of farmers, all having ranches under the Kannadiyan Channel, submitted a petition against the move to release water from the Papanasam Dam into the Tamirabharani – Karumaeniyar – Nambiyar linking flood carrier channel for trial run.
The petitioners said the PWD officials have planned to release water from the Papansam Dam in the 73-km-long flood carrier channel for testing the durability of the structure since there is a proposal to release the surplus water of the Tamirabharani before October-end.
“If the water is released from the Papansam Dam, now having 82 feet water, it will seriously affect ‘pisanam’ paddy cultivation in Kannadiyan, Kodaimelazhagiyaan and Nadhiyunni channels. Hence, the trial run can be done after the northeast monsoon intensifies and the surplus water is released from the Papanasam Dam.”
