With tonnes of decades-old problems and insufficient infrastructure, Tirunelveli parliamentary constituency is all set to undergo yet another election.
The constituency comprising Alangulam, Ambasamudram, Tirunelveli, Palayamkottai, Nanguneri and Radhapuram Assembly segments has 16,50,532 voters (8,06,096 men, 8,44,284 women and 152 others), who will cast their votes in 1,810 polling booths. Additional security arrangements will be made in 331 vulnerable and 13 critical booths. Micro observers will be deployed and CCTV cameras will be installed in these booths for webcasting, says Collector and Returning Officer of the constituency K.P. Karthikeyan.
The AIADMK has bagged Tirunelveli constituency seven times (1977, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1998, 1999 and 2014), while the Congress has won five times (1952, 1957, 1962 2004 and 2009) in the past 17 general elections held between 1954 and 2019. The DMK wrested this constituency three times (1980, 1996 and 2019). Interestingly, Swatantra Party (1967) and CPI (1971) candidates have been elected to Parliament from Tirunelveli once each.
Twenty-three candidates, including C. Robert Bruce of Congress, BJP’s Nainar Nagenthran, AIADMK’s M. Jancy Rani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s B. Sathya, are flexing their muscles in the 18th Parliamentary election along with 22 independents.
With the Tamirabharani being the lifeline of Tirunelveli district, farming is the predominant profession of the people of the constituency, while beedi rolling keeps the rural life afloat along with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme. Even though a few industries like ATC Tyres, Britannia and Bosch, TP Solar in Gangaikondan SIPCOT Industrial Promotion Centre have provided relatively decent jobs to a few hundred skilled and unskilled youths, the district is yet to witness heavy industrial investments.
And the migration of skilled and unskilled workforce to metro cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tier II cities like Coimbatore and Tirupur in search of greener pastures is still unabated. Even though this migration led to the scrapping of Cheranmahadevi Assembly segment due to a drastically dwindled population, successive governments that occupied Fort St. George are not much bothered about this serious issue.
The Information Technology Special Economic Zone near Gangaikondan SIPCOT complex has just one company – Atos Syntel. The only hope now in the IT sector is Zoho Corporation’s office coming up at Tharuvai near Palayamkottai as its founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu is aggressively establishing Zoho’s offices in Tier-II cities of Tamil Nadu instead of concentrating only in metro cities.
The Nanguneri Multiproduct Special Economic Zone is a classic example of the rulers callous approach towards creating employment in southern Tamil Nadu, particularly in highly volatile Tirunelveli district. Even after nearly a quarter century, this SEZ has just eight manufacturing units functioning with around 350 workers, mostly unskilled labourers.
“After being a matter of discussion during election campaigns, the SEZ would be forgotten altogether and this issue will resurface again in the next electioneering. And, all the candidates and even the Chief Ministers would promise uniformly that resurrection of Nanguneri SEZ would be their immediate goal as they campaign in Tirunelveli district. The issue will be buried promptly once the elections are over. We’ve lost hopes in the governments,” said a leading industrialist here.
The SEZ promoter has mortgaged the 2,600 acres of land allotted for the SEZ to raise loans to the tune of ₹865 crore and, hence, the investors are sceptical about establishing their units on mortgaged land. However, Minister for Industries T.R.B. Rajaa, and Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu are quite hopeful of retrieving around 1,000 acres of this bunch initially to attract the investments.
“Whenever the district enjoys good rainfall during monsoon, the crime rate in Tirunelveli will come down sharply as everyone would be occupied in some work. If there is no work, their mind becomes devil’s workshop that causes all sorts of law and order issues,” says a retired police officer.
After demonetisation, the Centre’s Goods and Services Tax has almost decimated the beedi rolling industry. Consequently, the district that once housed over 7.50 lakh beedi rollers, mostly rural women, now has around 2.50 lakh beedi rolling workers. To make things worse, the sudden stoppage of welfare measures for the beedi rollers has compelled the workers to leave this job. The well-equipped 80-bedded hospital for beedi workers at Mukkoodal is gradually crumbling due to want of sufficient doctors.
Asia’s oldest Siddha Medical College established by the Tamil Nadu Government 55 years ago at Palayamkottai is still functioning from a cramped campus. “Herbal garden is the backbone of a Siddha Medical College. But we don’t have this garden on our campus. If this campus is shifted to a extensive land close to the Western Ghats, it will be useful for the budding Siddha practitioners to scan the hilly regions for medicinal plants for preparing new formulations,” said a faculty member of the college, which has digitised the medicinal formulations explained in palm manuscripts.
The Tirunelveli – Tenkasi four-lane highway, which was started five years ago is nearing completion. However, the delay in constructing the rail over bridge at Pavoorchathiram in Tenkasi district will further delay the formal inauguration of this busy stretch.
“However, the Tamil Nadu government, which criticises the Centre for collecting toll for using the national highways, has made it clear that it will collect toll for using Tirunelveli – Tenkasi Highway,” said Ramalingam, a trader from Alangulam.
Though this district houses all five lands illustrated in ancient Tamil literature – Kurinji, Mullai, Marudham, Neithal and Paalai with excellent tourism potential, successive governments have done very little to tap this industry to create a few thousand jobs.
The only solace is the flood carrier liver-inking channel dug for 73 Km to connect Tamirabharani, Karumeniyar and Nambiyar Rivers to take the surplus water of the perennial Tamirabharani to these two rivers having flow only during active monsoon. However, the Tamirabharani, supplying drinking water to four southern districts from 236 infiltration wells has almost become ‘Tirunelveli’s Cooum’ with serious pollution levels with domestic and industrial effluents being discharged into the river in uncontrollable manner.
“You cannot say proudly anymore that you are taking bath in the Tamirabharani every day as you may contract skin diseases. An action plan should be put in place to check pollution of this river,” says writer Narumpoonathan, a former State Bank of India employee.
However, the candidates in fray for election are making toll promises and prescribing a panacea for all these problems.
