PUDUKKOTTAI: At a time when there are allegations of cash-for-votes and auctioning of posts, a village in Pudukkottai elected its president based on the track record of his welfare activities.
Residents of Seriyalur elected Jiyavudeen going by the work he did in the aftermath of cyclone Gaja. The forty-five year old had just returned to the village from Singapore where he was employed for 15 years. "Seeing the damage caused by the cyclone, I wanted to do something for the village. I coordinated with NGOs and made sure affected people got all the help they could. We helped people at a time when there was a lot of damage and destruction," said Jiyavudeen.
Once normalcy returned, he started a social service group consisting of youngsters.
The group co-ordinated with officials and arranged for water supply from the Cauvery to the village, and are now digging a lake. There was a sluice that would bring water from the Cauvery, but it remained closed for 40 years, which problems in the village.
"We dredged the path where water could flow for at least one kilometre. With the help of a corporate, we received `40 lakh recently. We initially pooled `3 lakhs and started the work seven months ago. We are mainly working on getting the water from the dam into the sluice gate which was closed," added Jiyavudeen.
The lake is spread around 35 acres and can irrigate 2000 acres.
"Jiyavudeen has done good work in the past two years. We do not discriminate on the basis of religion in our village. We elected him because we need a president who will work for the betterment of the village," said a villager.Seriyalur has 50 odd Muslims and more than 1500 Hindus.
Jiyavudeen's next agenda is to provide employment for the women in the village. He also proudly states that he did not spend a single penny on election campaigning.