The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Show cause to villagers for "auctioning" post

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 27, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Show cause to villagers for "auctioning" post

Staff Reporter

Asked why they should not be ordered to execute a bond for Rs. 1,000 each with two sureties

MADURAI: Taking serious note of alleged auctioning of the post of Kodikulam panchayat vice-president here recently, the district administration has taken action against 20 villagers under Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Usilampatti Revenue Divisional Officer has issued a show cause notice to the villagers asking why they should not be ordered to execute a bond for Rs. 1,000 each along with two sureties for attempting to breach public peace. The action has been taken pursuant to a notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission to the District Collector, T. Udhayachandran.

Gram sabha meeting

Assuring all infrastructure facilities to the panchayat, he called for a special gram sabha meeting on Sunday to enable the villagers to convey their grievances. The last grama sabha meeting was held only on November 14.

The panchayat president post was open to general category candidates till the last local body elections, when it was reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman. A Dalit woman, V. Balamani, won the election and assumed charge.

But out of the nine ward members, only three persons (all Dalits) were elected and the rest of the wards remained vacant since no one came forward to file nominations.

As an interim arrangement, one of the three members, K. Marimuthu, was elected as the vice-president in the indirect elections.

Even as the district administration was planning to conduct elections to the vacant wards after six months, as required under law, a few caste Hindus conspired to field their candidates in all the six wards and to elect one of them as the vice-president.

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