Thiruverumbur residents withdraw poll boycott call

Trichy: Federation for Retrieval of Trichy Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Road withdrew its poll boycott announcement after the district administration and the election department conducted two rounds of peace talks, assuring a swift solution for the residents' demand seeking wider service roads for Trichy-Thanjavur NH to prevent accidents.Since the election department and officials overseeing the progress of land acquisition for the service roads assured timely completion of work after the model code of conduct lapsed, the residents agreed to participate in the election on April 23."Special tahsildar informed us that the final phase of land acquisition is in progress in Tharanallur and Ariyamangalam revenue villages. We were told that land acquisition will be initiated in other revenue villages soon," S Subramanian, president of the federation, said. The federation announced a poll boycott on April 3, and sent a letter to the district election department. Subsequently, the department conducted peace talks with the representatives on April 4 and 13 in the Trichy RDO office. The first round of peace talks was futile, but in the second round, residents urged the revenue department to ensure that the width of the service lanes adhered to the order issued by the Madras high court dated Oct 15, 2019. As officials agreed, the poll boycott call was withdrawn.