Residents boycott gram sabha meeting, demand new panchayat building

Residents of Kuppathamottur village boycott Republic Day meeting, demand permanent panchayat office building, facing disruptions in civic works.

Residents of Kuppathamottur village that comes under Katpadi panchayat union in Vellore boycotted the grama sabha meeting held in the village as part of the 76th Republic Day celebrations on Sunday, demanding a permanent building for the panchayat office.

Farmers said the dilapidated building of the panchayat office was built on a small government wasteland near Government Middle School over three decades ago.

The building was later demolished after the Katpadi block development officer S. Nandakumar and revenue officials of Katpadi taluk promised a new building to run the panchayat office.

“Residents also passed resolutions in previous gram sabha meetings to build a permanent building for the panchayat office but no efforts have been taken so far,” said T. Sonia, president, village panchayat.

Prior to the demolished panchayat building, residents said the panchayat office was functioning in a thatched roof building. Subsequently, residents pooled and contributed funds to build the panchayat building.

After an inspection conducted by senior officials of the district administration, it was decided to demolish the building andconstruct a new one. A sum of ₹30 lakhs was allocated by DRDA before the demolition.

Since then, the panchayat office was shifted to a small room, which used to function as the village library. As the library became a makeshift panchayat office, readers, especially government school students were affected. A separate building for the panchayat office would have been a permanent solution, said residents.