The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : No nomination filed in a panchayat ward

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 01, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

No nomination filed in a panchayat ward

K. Manikandan

A collective decision taken at `oor panchayat'

TAMBARAM : Among nearly 1,500 nominations received at the St. Thomas Panchayat Union's office for 237 ward member posts in 25 village panchayats, there is none from ward No. 4 of Injambakkam panchayat off the East Coast Road. It seems that no candidate has opted to become an elected representative of the ward. The reason? The ward, which is predominantly inhabited by fishermen, is in the category of constituencies reserved for SC (General).

Residents here said they did not want to compare the situation here with what was happening in Pappapatti and Keeripatti in Madurai district, where there was a tension between communities. But they pointed out that of the 1,119 votes in this ward, fishermen alone accounted for more than 750, other communities about 300 and the number of SC votes was meagre.

And the decision to abstain from filing nominations for the post of ward member was a collective one taken at a meeting of the village, `oor panchayat', as they termed it. Members of all communities in the ward took part in the panchayat and gave their consent, said Gajapathi, a resident.

They came to know about the reservation status only a day before nominations began and their frantic efforts to point out the anomalies to the officials failed. So far, none of the wards in their village were reserved, except for women. And reservation for SC ward members should first be made where the representative population was more, like in the neighbouring wards, the resident said.

A. Sivamani, one of the two elected representatives from ward No.4, the other being Karnan, said they had to abide by the decision of the `oor panchayat".

The residents blamed government officials for not taking into account all aspects before reserving a post or a ward for a particular category.

They, however, said they would vote for their panchayat president, panchayat union councillor and district panchayat ward member.

The officials said reservation for wards and elected representatives was done only after several rounds of scrutiny and to ensure there was no lapse or scope for complaint.

The proof lay in the overwhelming response to the number of applications and no nomination from a single ward in a panchayat was only an isolated incident.

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