THANJAVUR: Nearly twelve years have passed but the proposed merger of 14 village panchayats with the Thanjavur city corporation is yet to see the light of the day.
As a result, the most urbanised ones among these panchayats, with a paucity of infrastructure, flounder on solid waste management and sewage treatment, among others.
One of the oldest in the state, Thanjavur became a municipality in 1866 and it was upgraded to a city corporation in 2014. Initially, it was decided to merge 11 village panchayats and Vallam town panchayat with Thanjavur to meet the population requirement of 3 lakh and above to form a city corporation.
However, stiff opposition from the residents to retain the town panchayat’s historical identity led to the exclusion of Vallam from the proposed merger. Subsequently, it was decided to merge Mariammankoil, Pudhupattinam, Vilar, Neelagiri, Ramanathapuram and Melaveli panchayats in total and parts of Kadakadappai, Nanjikkottai, Inathukanpatti, Katharinatham, Alangudi, Pulavarnatham and Manakkarambai.
Inclusion of these panchayats will increase the spread of Thanjavur city corporation from 36.35 square km to 122 sq km. The population is also expected to increase beyond 3.5 lakh with their merger. Despite resolutions adopted in the village panchayats, with some initial resistance from a few of them, for merger with the city corporation, the process is yet to be completed.
This delay has caused problems for most urbanised panchayats like Nanjikkottai, the most conspicuous of which is solid waste management. One can witness the unchecked littering and burning of waste on the roadside in most of the thoroughfares in the panchayat. Heaps of garbage on either side of the Thanjavur bypass road passing through the village panchayat also is a case in point.
"The smoke emanating from the burning of solid waste, particularly plastics, and the stench emanating from the heaped garbage on roadsides have been causing health problems to the residents," said S M Das, a resident of Arockiyanagar falling under Nanjikkottai panchayat. V Sathiyaraj, till recently the president of Nanjikkottai panchayat, echoed the problem.
"We could manage the laying of roads and arranging potable water supply. Managing the garbage, sewage, and controlling stray dogs and pigs, however, are major problems which could be tackled only by a city corporation administration," he said. J A Senthilvelan, who is ex-president of Kadakadappai, said that benefits of a city corporation are yet to accrued to it though the panchayat had adopted resolutions several years ago.
"The areas for merger are also not properly identified," he added. When contacted a senior revenue official with the district administration told TNIE that the proposals for merger have already been sent to the government. Meanwhile, city corporation officials said the Union government, citing the ensuing Census, had instructed to put on hold any reorganisation of city boundaries. "Hence the process (of merger) will be delayed for another one year," the official said.