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TN poll panel seeks action against auction of posts ahead of local body elections

With local body polls set to take place in nine districts in the state in October, illegal auctioning of panchayat postings are alleged to have happened in Kallakuruchi and Villupuram districts.

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has directed the Collectors of the nine districts where rural local body elections are to be held, to take stringent action to curb “auction” of the posts of panchayat presidents. This comes after allegations of “auctions” of panchayat postings have surfaced once again ahead of the local body polls to be held in nine districts in Tamil Nadu on October 6 and 9.

The auctions are alleged to have happened in Ulagalapadi village belonging to the Sankarapuram panchayat union in Kallakuruchi district and in Thuthupati village part of the Gingee panchayat block along with Ponnankupam village in Villupuram district. The Gingee block is reserved for Scheduled Tribe women. Residents of Thuthupati alleged that the auctions took place between contestants of Ponnankupam, and threatened to boycott the polls. The posts are believed to have been auctioned off for Rs 13 lakh. The auction means that the process of democracy is subverted, making the winner of the local body polls a foregone conclusion.

Following news reports of the Gingee incident, Villupuram collector Mohan went to the spot and ordered investigations by the Gingee police and the local tahsildar. Speaking to TNM, he said that action would be taken based on the investigation reports. “The Gingee DSP is conducting an investigation and the tahsildar is also making inquiries. Nominations for the polls have already been completed. Latest by day after, once the report comes in, we will decide what to do. If we have evidence, we will take serious action,” he says.

DSP for Gingee, Elangoven, said that according to their investigations there was a disagreement between the villages of Ponnankupam and Thuthipati. Thuthipati has 3,000 votes and Ponnankupam has only 1,100 votes, he says, adding that Ponnankupam residents want a separate panchayat as it is difficult for people from their village to win posts. He also added that people in Thuthipati are saying that no such auction happened while Ponnankupam are insisting that Thuthipati villagers had come to an agreement among themselves regarding the postings. Some youngsters from Ponnankupam raised the alarm, in this case. Gingee police have sent their report to the sub-collector who is supposed to hold peace talks with both villages in the coming days.

Dr V Palanikumar, Commissioner for the State Election Commission, told TNM that the Villupuram district collector has been asked to look into the matter and that he is awaiting word from him. Further, he added that the last date for nomination filing for the upcoming local body polls was September 22, Thursday, so he will only receive the report after.

Political parties have opposed the practice and called upon the SEC and the respective district administrations to take stern action. DMK MP RS Bharathi said that this has to be curtailed and that if noticed, district administrators should take stern action against those abetting moves to subvert the democratic process.

BJP leader H Raja said that strong action must be taken by the State Election Commission to bring an end to such moves.

Retired professor G Palanithurai said, “If someone is getting elected through consensus, there should be fixed criteria and it should be based on morals and ethics and not money. The Election Commission has enormous powers and they should act as people are complaining from villages themselves. No one should be allowed to subvert the democratic process.”

Incidents of panchayat posting auctions is not new. In 2019, Krishnamurthy, a young Adi Dravidar advocate from Pinjanur, Cudalore discovered that posts had been auctioned off for Rs 16 lakh to an Udaiyur caste member, the dominant caste in the area. These auctions also took place just weeks ahead of the local body polls. He raised an alarm after his discovery. Similar auctions have occurred earlier in Nadankuppam (a video of an auction that went up to Rs 50 lakh went viral), Thanjavur, Virudhunagar, Pudukkottai and Ramanathapuram, as TNM had earlier reported.

C Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of Developmental Sciences had earlier told TNM that the practice of auctioning dates back to the colonial period, when a feudal system existed, where the village head was a landlord and/or a member of the dominant caste who helped in the development of the village. “And even after a democratic process came into play, the power remains with these classes of people. Earlier the dominant caste automatically led the panchayat and the competition was between two to three men who were all affluent. And now, the same practice is actually continuing in the state, where they select (the panchayat) despite an election to keep the traditions the same. But those who remain left out in this process are oppressed castes, women and the landless,” he said. 

With IANS inputs

Source: The News Minute