Three village panchayats, who have raised a banner of revolt against the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to merge the rural local bodies with Tirunelveli Corporation, staged protests during a gram sabha meeting held here on Wednesday.
The State Government has announced that Thaazhaiyooththu, Puthupettai, Suththamalli, Thenpaththu, Ramaiyanpatti, Kondaanagaram, Reddiyarpatti, Keezhanaththam, Palayam Chettikulam, Ittaeri, Munneerpallam and Notchikulam village panchayats would be annexed with Tirunelveli Corporation to make the urban civic body bigger with more population.
However, Ramaiyanpatti, Thaazhaiyooththu and Ittaeri village panchayat residents and ward members oppose the move saying it would spoil the chances of their residents getting government welfare schemes meant for the rural poor. They would not even be hired under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme as they would be part of urban area after the merger
The residents of Thaazhaiyooththu village panchayat said the DMK office-bearers’ ploy had forced the officials to merge their local body with Tirunelveli Corporation to save the DMK members heading the Shankar Nagar and Naranammalpuram town panchayats.
“Even though the Tamil Nadu Government was originally planning to annex the Shankar Nagar and Naranammalpuram Town Panchayats with Tirunelveli Corporation, it was dropped because of the pressure exerted by the ruling DMK office-bearers of Tirunelveli. Since the heads of these two town panchayats belong to the DMK, they spoiled the move of annexing Shankar Nagar and Naranammalpuram town panchayats. Instead, another 12 village panchayats, including Thaazhaiyooththu panchayat, have been autocratically merged with the Corporation, which cannot be accepted,” the villagers attending the gram sabha meeting in Thaazhaiyooththu said.
At Ramaiyanpatti, the participants of the gram sahba meeting raised slogans against the government’s decision to merge their village panchayat with the Tirunelveli Corporation. Three ward members rolled on the ground in protest against the annexure move even as the gram sabha meeting was going on. They said top government officials should come to Ramaiyanpatti to hold talks with them.
“We will not get free houses and we will not be hired under MNREGP even though more than 80% of the population are farmhands. This move which will wipe out our livelihood and, hence, should not be taken forward,” they said.
Residents of Ittaeri hoisted black flags in their village as a mark of their opposition to the annexure move. They said the annexure of their village panchayat would only result in acute rise in property tax, vacant land tax, professional tax, water tax and other taxes payable to Tirunelveli Corporation.
“While making us poorer by denying us job even under the MNREGP, tax burden on us will become the heaviest. This agonizing unbearable move should be dropped,” they said.
Published - October 02, 2024 07:21 pm IST
