ARIYALUR: Residents of Periya Thirukonam panchayat here allege that the grama sabha meeting held on Friday to discuss various issues was delayed by an hour and saw meagre participation due to the lackadaisical attitude of authorities.
This situation has been prevailing for the last 3 years, they added. Over 900 families live in the Periya Thirukonam, Chetti Thirukonam and Kamarajapuram villages in the panchayat. The residents face various problems such as non-disposal of garbage, dirty drinking water tanks, and seepage of sewage water into water bodies.
Residents had brought up the issues before the panchayat, Ariyalur BDO and collectorate several times, but to no avail. The villagers said that they were planning to pass a resolution regarding amenities in the meeting held at Kamarajapuram and led by Panchayat President R Ravikumar.
However, as the participants were not informed beforehand, very few people were able to attend the meeting on time. Due to this, the meeting which was supposed to begin at 11am was delayed by an hour.
Only 15 people participated and the meeting lasted for hardly 15-20 minutes. R Raja, a resident, said, " A total of 18 grama sabha meetings have been held in the last three years. Not more than 30 people have attended a meeting so far.
Even the officials ignore the meetings held here. We fail to pass resolutions at every meeting" P Saravanan, a ward member said, "The panchayat does not inform us properly about the meetings. In fact, they gave me a notice on Friday morning.
Then how do they expect us to attend the meeting in such short notice? The panchayat president does not even hold a monthly meeting of the ward members.” Those who attended the meeting were left disappointed as none of the crucial issues were discussed.
N Elavarasan from Chetti Thirukonam said, "No action has been taken so far despite the demands of proper cleaning of the tanks, drinking water facility, lake renovation, graveyard path, playground." When contacted, a senior Rural Development Department official said, "I was not aware of this issue. However, I will look into it and take necessary steps."