PERAMBALUR: Ward members of Perali village panchayat in the district have raised a host of allegations against its president and vice-president, including forging their signatures to show them as having attended monthly meetings, and misappropriation of local body funds.
Perali village panchayat in Veppur union has Shanthi Senthilkumar as its president and N Ramasamy, its vice-president. The duo along with nine ward members runs the panchayat. While norms dictate the panchayat to convene meetings once every month and discuss and adopt resolutions on implementation of projects and various issues affecting it, the ward members claim them to not being proper, and funds as being spent by adopting resolutions without their knowledge. Complaints to the Veppur block development officer and the district collectorate have been in vain, they added.
R Ayyasamy, one of the ward members said, "So far not a single panchayat meeting has taken place properly. The vice president urges us to sign in the attendance records when such a meeting would not have been held in the first place. As the signature of some ward members is simple, he rather puts it without their knowledge. This is reprehensible, and the district administration should take immediate action on it. I have filed a separate petition to the Mudalvarin Mugavari department regarding this."
Mentioning how panchayat funds must be spent after adopting resolutions by convening a meeting with the ward members, Ayyasamy said, “They, however, adopt such resolutions after spending money on the issues in the panchayat. We do not know what work is going on. When we ask the president and the vice-president about it, they don’t not respond properly.”
Another ward member, P Kaveri, said, "The panchayat president and the vice-president don’t give proper intimation on the ward member meeting. They put my signature as having attended a meeting that was not held. How is this possible? This problem has been going on for a year."
"They also do not care about our ward’s problems. But they recently spent Rs 2 lakh towards electrical and pipe works in the panchayat. They, however, do not tell us where it was undertaken. They even make fake voucher for these," she added.
When contacted, Veppur Block Development Officer Rajendran told TNIE, "I took charge recently and I am not aware of the issue. However, I will take action."