Expressing dissatisfaction over the manner in which delimitation of wards in local bodies was done, representatives of political parties and the public, who participated in the public hearing on delimitation of wards, said wards of local bodies should be demarcated considering convenience of local residents.
As the wards of Tirunelveli Corporation, municipalities, town panchayats and village panchayats have been delimited and notification in this connection had been made in the civic bodies concerned, a public hearing on this delimitation was held on Tuesday with Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish in chair.
Former chairman of Maanur union and AIADMK functionary ‘Kallur’ Velayutham said the Vannikonenthal area, which was earlier with Melaneelithanallur union due to its proximity, had been annexed with the far off Maanur union, which would cause extreme difficulty to residents of Vannikonenthal firka.
Similarly, the delimitation of Kuruvikulam, Melaneelithanallur, Maanur and Paapaakudi, which had been done without considering the convenience of local residents, would bother the public whenever they had to visit the local body office for any purpose. Without keeping in mind the convenience of the local people, demarcation of wards had been done, Mr. Velayutham said.
Indian Union Muslim League’s L.K.S. Meeran said the number of wards in Melapalayam zone of Tirunelveli Corporation had been drastically reduced from 14 to 10 by increasing the number of voters in each ward.
“While the number of voters in a ward in Melapalayam Zone after the delimitation stands around 9,000, it is only 4,500 in a few wards in other zones, which is quite unjustifiable. The number of voters in all wards should be more or less equal so that the number of wards in a particular zone will not get reduced drastically. In other words, the increased number of voters in a few wards will seriously affect implementation of work in those wards, especially sanitary operations everyday,” he said.
The MDMK’s political advisory committee member Kallaththiyan said Thimmarajapuram near Shanthi Nagar, which was with Palayamkottai zone prior to the delimitation, had been annexed with Thatchanallur zone. “If a resident of Thimmarajapuram has to visit the Thatchanallur zonal office, he or she will have to go all the way to the zonal office in Tirunelveli Junction instead of travelling just 3 km to reach the Palayamkottai zone office. So, Thimmarajapuram should be allowed to be with Palayamkottai Zone,” he said.
District secretary of BJP Suresh said Kulavanigarpuram of Melapalayam Zone, which was in ward 28, had been sliced into three wards – 31, 43 and 52. It was in the worst shape as ward 31 had been annexed with Thatchanallur zone while the Melapalayam Zone office was just 2 km away from Kulavanigarpuram.
Public too opined that demarcation of wards should be done without hurting residents’ convenience.
Ms. Shilpa, after the public hearing, assured that a final decision on delimitation would be taken after carefully considering the views of the public.
District Revenue Officer B. Muthuramalingam, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency, Manthrachalam, Corporation Commissioner G. Kannan, and Assistant Director of Panchayats Arunachalam participated in the public hearing.
