THOOTHUKUDI: Alleging that the husband of Vaippar panchayat president illegally felled seemai karuvelam (Prosopis juliflora) trees spanning over 40 acres without inviting any tender for the work, residents of Kalaignanapuram village submitted a petition during the weekly grievance redressal meeting held at the collectorate on Monday. They also produced an audio recording wherein the man is heard telling someone that he has been razing seemai karuvelam trees so that he can establish salt pans on the cleared land.
"Panchayat president Sakkamal's husband Ramar cut the trees and sold the wood worth around Rs 20 lakh. There are over 2,000 acres of poramboke land here housing seemai karuvelam trees. Neither a resolution was passed to cut the trees nor tenders invited for the work. Thus, Ramar has been causing huge loss for the panchayat exchequer," the petition said.
In another petition, activist M Gandhimallar attached to the Sterlite Nila Meetpu Iyakkam urged the state government to provide additional compensation to the owners of land plots that were acquired for the SIPCOT industrial expansion project in 1994.
The activist claimed that the SIPCOT in 1994 acquired several hundreds of acres from the people of Kummareddiyarpuram, Kumaragiri, and Therku Veerapandiyapuram for industrial expansion, and provided a compensation of Rs 80,000 each for 324 acres in 2010, Rs 6.5 lakh each for 129 acres in 2010, and Rs 15,35 lakh for another set of 93 acres in 2015. "Since the land price has skyrocketed and the original land owners have become very poor, the government must consider providing them additional compensation," he said.