Madurai: Villagers around Tirunelveli oppose merger into civic body

04 Oct 2024 CW Team

Residents from several villages around Tirunelveli expressed their opposition to the plan of incorporating their villages into the Tirunelveli municipal corporation. Villages such as Reddiyarpatti, Itteri, Munneerpallam, Nochikulam, Ramayanpatti, Thalaiyuthu, and Keelanatham had been earmarked for inclusion under the corporation as part of a broader initiative to expand urban areas across the state.

During gram sabha meetings held in some of these villages in conjunction with the Gandhi Jayanthi celebrations, villagers voiced their protests. In Thalaiyuthu, residents staged a protest at the meeting site, while in Itteri, villagers marched to the venue carrying black flags, demanding that the proposal be abandoned. In Ramayanpatti, a local ward councillor, Mariappan, made his protest by rolling on the ground. Tension was reported in these villages, with residents raising slogans against the authorities.

The villagers argued that the authorities were already struggling to provide adequate amenities to city residents, questioning the rationale behind adding more areas to the municipal corporation. They also expressed concerns that they would lose access to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme if their villages were incorporated into the city limits.

Meanwhile, collector K P Karthikeyan attended a gram sabha meeting at Marukalkurichi village in Nanguneri block, where he distributed Kalaignar sports kits to the panchayat president.

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