Move to annex village panchayat with Thoothukudi Corporation opposed

Residents protest annexation of Ayyanadaippu village, fearing loss of welfare schemes and increased taxes by Thoothukudi Corporation.

Condemning the move to annex Ayyanadaippu village panchayat near the District Collectorate with Thoothukudi Corporation, residents of the villages under the rural local body submitted petitions to Collector K. Elambahavath on Monday.

 The petitioners said the Ayyanadaippu village panchayat had a sizable Scheduled Caste population working as farmhands and under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. If the panchayat was merged with the Corporation, welfare schemes such as MGNREGA and free housing would be snatched away, while there would be manifold increase in taxes payable to the Corporation such as property tax, vacant land tax, drinking water tax and professional tax .

 Since the poor residents of Ayyanadaippu village panchayat could not afford to pay the increased taxes, while losing their job under the MGNREGA scheme, the move to annex the rural local body with the Corporation should be given up, they prayed.

 The petitioners said the Corporation, which had annexed the peripheral areas up to Muthaiahpuram in the south, was planning to extend its boundaries in the west up to Korampallam and Ayyanadaippu so that the Collectorate campus and the manufacturing units in SIPCOT Industrial Estate would also be part of the urban civic body.

 Mr. Elambahavath received 420 petitions on Monday and handed over two hand-pedalled tricycles and a wheelchair. He also received 26 petitions from differently abled persons.