The second phase of public hearing held on Tuesday on annexing some of revenue villages now with Maanur and Paapaakudi panchayat unions with the newly carved out Tenkasi district or continue to be with Tirunelveli district concluded inconclusively.
When Tenkasi district was carved out of Tirunelveli district which had 10 Assembly segments with 16 taluks, the new district was created with five Assembly constituencies housing eight taluks.
Since the final decision of annexing some of the villages in Maanur and Paapaakudi panchayat unions with Tenkasi district or Tirunelveli district is yet to be taken, the second phase of the public hearing was held on Tuesday. When the first public hearing was held last month, participants, mostly public representatives, opposed the move to annex some of the villages with Paapaakudi union, saying that the move would torment the public a lot in reaching their union office.
As the second phase of the public hearing was conducted on Tuesday with Tirunelveli Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish in chair and in the presence of Tenkasi Collector G.K. Arun Sundar Thayalan, the participants opposed the move to annex 14 village panchayats now with Maanur union to Paapaakudi union.
Raising this issue, DMK’s Tirunelveli central district secretary Abdul Wahab and former chairman of Maanur panchayat union ‘Kallur’ Velayutham of AIADMK said the annexing of the village panchayats now with Maanur union with Paapaakudi union would badly hit delimitation of Assembly segments.
“If these village panchayats are attached to Paapaakudi union, these village panchayats will either come under Alangulam Assembly constituency or with Ambasamudram Assembly segment instead of being with Tirunelveli constituency. Instead of being with nearby Tirunelveli Revenue Division, it will go under the Cheranmahadevi Revenue Division. So it will cause chaos in the revenue system. The people of these village panchayats, who can easily reach Maanur union office by travelling for about 10 km will have to travel for about 30 km to reach Paapaakudi union office,” said Mr. Wahab and Mr. Velayutham.
They, instead, favoured the creation of new panchayat union with Suththamalli or Kallur as its headquarters, which was instantly rejected by the officials, who said annexing of some of the revenue villages now with Maanur union with Paapaakudi union was inevitable. They suggested that Suththamalli, Pazhavoor, Kodaganallur, Melakallur and Sanganthiradu village panchayats be with Paapaakudi union, which was not accepted by the participants. So, the meeting ended on inconclusive note.