Usually, people visit the collectorate on Mondays for submitting petitions seeking assistance or to raise public issues.
On Monday, however, a group of residents of Marungapuri village came to the collectorate with an offer along and a demand. They came to donate land for the construction of a taluk office building in their village.
“A couple of philanthropists in our village are ready to donate land for constructing the taluk office building. It gives us an opportunity for the overall development of our village ,” says R.Tamizhazhagan, who led a team of villagers to the collectorate.
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The State government announced bifurcation of two taluks in the district, raising the total number of taluks from 9 to 11.
While the Tiruchi taluk has been bifurcated into Tiruchi East and Tiruchi West, the Manapparai taluk has been bifurcated into Manapparai and Marungapuri. Although residents in and around Marungapuri welcome the bifurcation of the taluk, there has been difference of opinion among villagers over the location of the taluk office. Apart from Marungapuri, Kallupatti and Thurvarankurichi are the other major villages and the location of the taluk office has become a bone of contention among the villagers, triggering a series of protest in the last three months. Villagers pointed out that the construction of the taluk office building would restore the lost glory of the village which was once a sub-taluk of the erstwhile Kulithalai taluk. J.Gopal, a resident, pointed out that the decision to donate the land for the taluk office building was taken with a view to regaining that status .They object any move to locate the taluk office at Kallupatti village, which is 3 km away from Marungapuri.
Though several departments are run in the name of Marungapuri, most of the offices are located at Kovilpatti, Kallupatti, or Yagapuram, which are actually 13 km, 3 km and 4 km away from Marungapuri. Further, Kallupatti village is located on a water course.
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