DHARMAPURI: Revenue officials informed that the district administration will be holding a peace talk with the villagers of the K Echambadi village on May 6th and resolve the school issue.
On Thursday, residents of K Echambadi had boycotted polling in the village, resulting in only 44 of the 951 votes in Booth No 25 being cast. One of the key reasons why the residents of the village had announced the boycott was the poor infrastructure and the relocation of the school to the outskirts of the village. To resolve the issue, the administration will be establishing a special peace committee which will constitute revenue officials and police on May 6th.
Speaking to TNIE, S Sivakumar from the village said, "We had announced the boycott back in early March. We had kept true to our word and boycotted the election. While our village has a Government Higher Secondary School, it is located 1.5 km away from the village. Over 252 students from our village study in the school. With the school lacking proper transportation and amenities, we had sought the administration to construct the school here. But our request was denied. So we constructed it ourselves, and now it is not even in use. Students in classes 9 and 10 still don't have classrooms."
Another resident, S Guruprasad from the village, said, "We had protested on Thursday, because we had doubts about the votes which were cast at the polling booths. There were no booth agents in the polling station, so we wanted to confirm the votes. The SP SS Maheswaran and DRO R Kavitha held talks, and we accepted their demands. They said a peace talk would be held after the counting. This matter has been projected as a caste issue by some, but we have no such issues. We want the school to function within the village, where not only our village students but also our neighbouring villages can have an easy way of accessing education."
"We will be holding a peace talk with the people and we hope for a permanent solution," the DRO said.