Five ward members of Perumalpatti panchayat in Sankarankoil union submitted their resignation letters to Collector M. Karunakaran at the grievance day meet here on Monday.
The disgruntled members — Krishnaveni, Soorya Maharaja, Seeniyammal, Veerapandian and Muthuraman — said that they had been compelled to take this extreme decision as no development work had been taken up in their wards. They said that Deputy Block Development Officer R. Ramanathan was functioning as Perumalpatti panchayat president while his wife and panchayat president R. Kalaiselvi remained a mute spectator to the functioning of the local body.
When an enquiry was ordered to probe irregularities in the panchayat, officials came to her rescue. “The panchayat administration has stopped development works in areas where Ms. Kalaiselvi did not get support in election. Even public taps in those areas have been either removed or water supply stopped,” Ms. Krishnaveni said. Since the president was living in Rajapalayam and visited the panchayat office only on Saturdays and Sundays, development works in the civic body had been badly hit.
