TIRUCHI, Tamil Nadu: Villagers from the Pudukottai district and Manapparai near Tiruchi have staged a protest to mark their opposition to the move of merging village panchayats with the urban local bodies in the respective towns.
Villagers are concerned about the imminent tax rise. But more importantly, they are fearful that once they become part of the urban local body, they will not be able to get employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
To register their dissatisfaction with the merger decision, the villagers staged a hunger strike in Pudukottai district. Similarly, Thirumalairayasamuthiyam Panchayat residents staged the protest in Metupatti and Thirukkattalai residents protested in Kepparai village.
One of the panchayat members from Thirumalairayasamuthiyam said, “These are economically backward regions. A good majority of us are involved in various daily wage activities including agriculture, labour works and construction. We cannot afford to lose the MGNREGA scheme as it is a life support to many here. Our consent was not asked before the announcement of this merger.”
Apart from that, over 500 villagers from Tiruchi huddled in the ground near Melamanjampatti to mark their opposition to the move regarding the expansion of the urban local body boundary. Speaking about the move, the former president of the Venagikurichi panchayat said, “If we get merged with the municipality we won’t get any benefits. We don’t have a water problem now but under municipality areas, there are many places where water supply problem is there.”