The Paristhithi Samrakshana Samiti has flayed the Kodiyathur grama panchayat authorities for their alleged role in the transfer of a village officer, whose report blamed the quarries in the panchayat for triggering the recent landslips in the area.
Samiti leaders alleged that the officer was transferred to another village with the contrived charge that he did not recommend the names of all applicants who were eligible beneficiaries for the government's flood relief aid. Also, some of the local body members took it up as a propaganda to speed up the untimely transfer, they said.
“As per the village officer's report, there were six quarries in Kodiyathur panchayat that triggered mudslips in the area. It was a shocker to the local body that had earlier ruled out the possibility and came in support of the licensed quarry operators,” said G. Ajith Kumar, convener of the samiti at Mukkom. He also alleged that the panchayat wanted to avoid any future objection or intervention by revenue officers, thus affecting the business.
The queue system, introduced by the village officer a few months ago to equally attend to all applicants without any individual consideration, had allegedly provoked a section of the local real estate investors who had been working hard to secure title deeds for “poramboke” land.
The queue system, according to anti-quarry activists in the Paristhithi Samiti, had annoyed people who tried to use their political influence to meet revenue officers and get their files processed.
Meanwhile, the panchayat authorities denied the allegation and claimed that they had no involvement in the transfer ordered by the Revenue Department. There were some complaints against him related to the preparation of beneficiaries’ list for the government's flood relief aid and some of the local body members had brought to light those errors for proper action, they said.
