Residents oppose move to merge Vellanguli with Veeravanallur town panchayat

The residents of Vellanguli village panchayat in Tirunelveli district have opposed the move to merge their panchayat with Veeravanallur town panchayat. They submitted a petition to the Tirunelveli Collector K.P. Karthikeyan in this regard at the weekly grievance redress meet on Monday.

The residents, backed by the CPI (M), in their petition, said that for many years now, Vellanguli, remained a village panchayat. However, steps were taken by the authorities to merge the village panchayat with Veeravanallur town panchayat, they said.

As per a government order, there should be a public hearing conducted by the authorities to ascertain the views of the residents. However, such a hearing was not conducted by the authorities and the views of the residents had not been taken into account. The authorities were going ahead with the proposal to merge the village panchayat with the town panchayat, they said.

Opposing the move to merge the village panchayat with the town panchayat, the residents said that if the merger took place then the workers could not be hired under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme and most of the families would lose their livelihood. They would not be eligible for other benefits, the residents said.

Published - September 30, 2024 08:39 pm IST