Public opinion meet on Kallakurichi bifurcation held

VILLUPURAM: A month after chief minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami announced that

Kallakurichi

would be carved out as the 33rd district of the state, bifurcating it from Villupuram district, a public opinion meeting to examine practical difficulties was held at the Villupuram collectorate on Wednesday.


Following an opinion meeting at Villupuram on Tuesday, officials headed by additional chief secretary K Satyagopal conducted another public opinion meeting at Kallakurichi to collect social data and to prepare base maps on Wednesday.

Gajendran, an activist, said after the chief minister made the announcement in January, there were confusions regarding fixing borders of the newly-formed district.

Villupuram, one of the largest district with about 1099 village panchayats, was already unofficially partitioned by political parties into north and south.

According to divisions made by political parties, Tiruvennainallur block -- which starts just 12km off the Villupuram district headquarters -- and continues till Chinna Salem -- on the border of

Salem district

-- falls into Villupuram south district. Fearing that the same standards would be followed by the government during their official bifurcation, villagers expressed their anxiety at the meeting.

Official sources said during the public opinion meeting at Villupuram and Kallakurichi, hundreds of petitions demanding that the panchayats and taluks located within 30-km radius of Villupuram headquarters (including

Thiruvennainallur

, Thirunavalur , Mugaiyur and Thirukovilur) to be retained in Villupuram district. Villagers wanted Kalvarayan Hills (Karumandurai) to be converted to taluk from block, and to set up a new master plan complex (collectorate, police headquarters and other revenue offices) within a 5-km radius of Kallakurichi.

Collector L Subramanaian, Villupuram SP S Jayakumar, current and former legislators including DMK MLA K

Ponmudi

, AIDMK MLA Kumaragury, former DMDK MLA Venkatesan, BJP functionary V A T Kaliyavaradhan, various other farmer association members, activists and general public participated in the meetings.


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