‘Panchayat chief’s discrimination claim concocted’
MADURAI: The allegations of the Dalit woman president of the Melakkal village panchayat in Vadipatti block that she was being discriminated against by ward members turned out be concocted, an inquiry conducted by Additional Director of Panchayat A Chelladurai on Saturday revealed.
Chelladurai said the inquiry found no evidence of caste discrimination against the president. “The president wanted to function independently. If it was a case of caste discrimination, she would have reported it much earlier. There was no issue between the president and the ward members between January and September.
Friction began only in October when the ward members questioned the decisions of the president in implementing government schemes and sought the financial statements of such projects,” he said. Yet another issue the inquiry revealed was the interference of the spouses of elected women representatives in the activities governance.
It was on October 29 that the panchayat president, one V Murugeshwari, and her husband, one Veerapathiran, staged a sit-in protest at the collectorate, alleging that six ward members of the panchayat were preventing her from discharging her duty as the panchayat president. She claimed it was a case of caste discrimination meted out at her.