PMK revamping its organisation ahead of urban local body polls

District secretaries will look after 2-3 constituencies

The PMK is changing its organisational structure in the run-up to elections to the urban local bodies.

The exercise, which is likely to be completed by this year-end, will empower the district secretaries, putting them in charge of two or three Assembly constituencies.

The party has said the posts of State deputy secretary will not exist any more. The changes are meant to ensure that the district secretaries have a direct line of communication with the leadership and to improve the party’s electoral performance.

PMK spokesperson K. Balu told

The Hindu that the changes would ease the burden on the office-bearers. “The State deputy secretary used to be responsible for too many constituencies and the arrangement had not worked very well. Now, a district secretary will be responsible for 2-3 constituencies.”

‘Conscious decision’

Sources in the party said a conscious decision was made to put more youths in positions of power and ensure that all communities were fairly represented in the organisation.

Mr. Balu said the party had appointed members of all communities, including the Brahmins, to the rank of district secretaries in line with its ideal of proportional representation. “We have put Sriram Iyer in charge of Mandaveli, Mylapore and Triplicane/Chepauk. For us, social justice is about proportional representation of all communities...,” he said.

Mr. Sriram said he is one of the eight district secretaries appointed in Chennai.

‘Pass a law’

PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Wednesday said the Tamil Nadu Government should pass a law to declare the first day of the month of ‘Thai’ the Tamil New Year. He said the law passed by former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was repealed by the Jayalalithaa Government in August 2011.

In a statement, he said April 14 is marked as ‘Tamil New Year’s Day’ in the list of holidays announced by the Government on November 3. “But the legend on the unofficial photo of the Pongal gift bag states Pongal Day is Tamil New Year’s Day.” This caused the confusion, he said.