Panchayat ward ward members resign to protest inaction to close fish processing units

Four ward members of Pottalurani panchayat in Thoothukudi district, to register their protest against district administration’s inaction to close fish processing units located in their area, submitted their resignation letters to the Collector K. Elambahavath during the grievance redressal meeting on Monday.  

Their struggle against the polluting units which had been persisting for about four years now has taken several forms to display their protest, said the villagers.  

Starting from submitting a petition to stop the units’ operation to boycotting the recent Lok Sabha elections, all their efforts have failed owing to the biased attitude of the officials and the district administration towards the companies, alleged E. Sankaranarayanan, a villager. 

Even after the poll boycott, no steps were taken by the government to heed their demand, they said and started continuous protests at a fixed spot in their village to pressurise the government.  

The police booked some of the villagers for allegedly causing public nuisance, he said.  

“When the villagers’ only demand is to close the fish processing units which are polluting our waterbodies and underground water, why should the government resort to police cases or threatening the public without inspecting the activity of the units,” he asked.  

As the villagers could not get the attention of the administrators to voice out their demand, the four out of the nine ward members in the Ellainayakkanpatti panchayat decided to resign their posts, Mr. Sankaranarayanan added.  

The four ward members from the Pottalurani village -- S. Suba, E. Athilakshmi, S. Sathyanarayanalakshmi and A. Poomariammal -- submitted their resignation as a petition to Mr. Elambahavath.  

As the ward members of the panchayat, they had the duty of representing the people in addressing their grievance. “When a ward member is not even allowed to register their villagers’ grievance during a public meeting like gram sabha then what power do we wield as their representatives,” the ward members asked.  

Either their grievances were not registered during the gram sabha meetings, or they were stopped from passing them as resolutions, they added.  

“When a basic right like gram sabha which was enshrined in the Constitution was refused for one section of people in need, then what purpose does it hold,” they asked.

The district administration officials said that their petitions were only collected and the decision to accept their resignation would only be decided after a thorough perusal of events which led to their decision.

Published - October 21, 2024 08:04 pm IST