The announcement made by the Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, in the Assembly regarding the creation of two new taluks in Vellore district has been welcomed by the locals and government officials alike.
The new taluks to be formed are Natrampalli (to be carved out of Tirupattur and Vaniyambadi taluks) and Anaicut (to be formed by bifurcating Vellore taluk). With this move, there will be 11 taluks in Vellore district.
Anaicut MLA Kalaiarasu said the formation of new taluks is expected to improve people’s accessibility to government offices and would help government officials to focus on better administration. He said he had been raising this issue in the Assembly for the past two years.
R Mullai, state executive member of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam said the plea for Natrampalli taluk was first made by the Sangam in the 1980s to the then CM M G Ramachandran when Vellore district was formed by bifurcating the erstwhile North Arcot district.
Sources said the new Natrampalli taluk will have a total of 30 villages (24 from the Tirupattur taluk and six from Vaniyambadi) with an estimated population of 1.5 lakh (1.26 lakh from Tirupattur and 27,000 from Vaniyambadi). It would also have the five firkas of Natrampalli, Ammanankoil, a part of Jolarpet, a part of Ambalur and a part of Andiappanur. Correspondingly, the number of firkas will come down from seven to three in Tirupattur and from four to two in Vaniyambadi. The Natrampalli taluk will also house two blocks of Jolarpet and Natrampalli and one town panchayat of Natrampalli spread over an area of 434 sq km.
The new Anaicut taluk will have 61 villages (after bifurcating the Vellore taluk which has a total of 112 villages) with a population of 1.85 lakh. Vellore presently has a population of 6.62 lakh and after bifurcation this figure will be reduced to 4.77 lakh. The Anaicut taluk will have four firkas, Pallikonda, Odugathur, Anaicut and Oosur. North Vellore, South Vellore, Sathuvachari, Pennathur and Kaniyambadi will remain under Vellore taluk. The Vellore taluk with a total area of 850 sq km will be reduced to 289 sq km.
The announcement of new taluks has disappointed the people of western region who have been demanding bifurcation of Arakkonam taluk for a long time.
Arakkonam, with a population of over 6 lakh people, is divided into eight firkas, over an area of over 800 sq km. In Vellore district, which has a total area of 5,900 sq km, Arakkonam is the biggest taluk. It also houses the three blocks of Arakkonam, Nemili and Kaveripakkam.
Proposals were made during the DMK regime for new taluks with headquarters at Sholingur or Kaveripakkam after bifurcating Arakkonam. But none of these proposals have taken shape so far.