Residents of Thangachimadam panchayat submitted a petition to the District Collector Simranjeet Singh Kahlon on Monday objecting to the proposal to merge their panchayat with Rameswaram municipality.
Petitioners said more than 30,000 people residing in the panchayat were dependent on fishing, Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act works and others.
Since their income was very meagre, they fear they could not bear the burden of increase in tax and losing MGNREGA works.
Considering their plight, they demanded to drop the plan of merging the panchayat with Rameswaram municipality.
Similarly, residents of Pamban panchayat, opposing the plan of upgrading their panchayat to town panchayat, submitted a petition.
“As we learned that our panchayat will be upgraded to town panchayat and then merged with Rameswaram municipality, we might lose benefits we receive as a panchayat,” they added.
Since there were chances that the scholarship accorded to students of rural villages might be stopped after the upgradation, fear of losing livelihood have engulfed the residents, they added.
“Many of our people in the panchayat are into fishing and business related to that, and in this situation, if we are cut off from schemes and benefits, we have no other way to improve our livelihood,” people said.
Published – December 23, 2024 05:28 pm IST