A section of residents in Gudiyatham, Kalasapakkam and Vandavasi towns have said they would boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha poll if their demands are not met by the State government.
Residents in five remote villages have been demanding merger of their villages with the Madhanur panchayat union in Tirupattur district. At present they are in the Gudiyatham block, but traditionally they were with Madhanur before the trifurcation of Vellore district in 2019.
“We unanimously supported the merger during public hearings held last year. District Collectors (Vellore and Tirupattur) also supported our cause. However, the issue is pending at the Secretariat for months,” said P.S. Nithyanandam, a long-time resident.
Five villages - Agaramcheri, Chinnacheri, Gollamangalam, Pallikuppam and Kuthambakkam - are located 5 km from Madhanur block whereas Gudiyatham block is located around 30 km from these villages.
Residents have to travel to Vallathur village in Gudiyatham for government facilities like old age pension, community certificates and patta change. Others benefits such as availing subsidies in agriculture, electricity, housing for low income groups, work allotment under NREGA are also affected. All these facilities were easily accessible by them when these villages were within the Madhanur block.
In Kalasapakkam taluk near Tiruvannamalai, residents of Sengaputheri village want restoration of polling booth to their village. Their booth was relocated to nearby Siruvallur village, which is around 4 km from Sengaputheri due to the demand of residents in that village. Residents said that senior citizens, women and the sick cannot travel such a distance to vote.
For residents of Kilsathamangalam in Vandavasi taluk of Tiruvannamalai, civic amenities like roads, street lights, regular water supply, storm water drain, underground drainage system, garbage collection were yet to be provided. They said they would boycott the election because basic amenities in the village had not been provided despite repeated petitions to authorities.
