Weekly grievance redress meet resumes

Ammapatti villagers seek solution to long-standing water issue

After a gap of nearly two months, the weekly grievance redressal meeting resumed at the Madurai Collectorate on Monday. A large number of people turned up to hand over petitions seeking various services and facilities. Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar received the petitions and listened to their grievances.

Of the 384 petitions received at the meeting, most of them pertained to certificates, monthly assistance for differently abled and weaker sections, employment, civic amenities, pension dues, pensionary and labour welfare board benefits. 

The Collector also received petitions from 32 differently abled people who were seated in separate queues. The Collector handed over four cerebral palsy wheelchairs, two tricycles and one elbow crutch worth about ₹50,000 to differently abled children.

Water tank dispute

Around 100 villagers from P. Ammapatti appealed to the Collector seeking action against a villager from neighbouring Saali Santhai who, they said, was trying to get domestic water connection from the village to use for agricultural and allied activities. They feared that if the water was diverted for irrigation, the local villagers might face shortage of water for their daily use.

“We were threatened by the police that we will be sent to jail if the protests continue. We were even warned of being shot at,” the petitioners said. The villagers said they have been resisting the yet-to-be-laid water connection for over 18 months.

The village houses 150 families whose only water source for domestic purpose is the village overhead tank. The villagers also feared overdrawing water by others which will affect the Ammapatti villagers.