Rajapalayam boasts of having given the first of three Chief Ministers the district has sent to Chennai when son of the soil P.S. Kumaraswamy Raja became Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, as early as 1949.
Besides its industrious citizens, the name of the town reminds pet lovers of the famous native breed of dogs.
Numerous spinning mills that have been giving job opportunities to thousands of local people are in doldrums due to multiple factors, from shrinking cotton cultivation area in Tamil Nadu, power cuts in 2012-14 and increased power tariff. “A few mills have closed down in the recent past and many of them are in the red,” says S.D. Selvaram Raja, who runs a spinning mill.
“Cartelization in 2011 saw cost of cotton doubling to Rs. 65,000 a candy (356 kg) by creating artificial demand through illegal hoarding. Immediately after the spinning mills bought them, the rates fell down to Rs. 35,000. All of us are still not able to come out of this loss alone,” he says.
Increase in power cost in Tamil Nadu has made yarn price uncompetitive in the market. Andhra Pradesh government is giving subsidy for the industry, he adds. Besides, flooding of fabrics into India from Bangladesh and Myanmar without any tax was also hitting the industry. Another blow for the industry was ban on exporting yarn brought in by the UPA Government. Spinning mills of Rajapalayam, a major cluster next only to Coimbatore, are reeling under tremendous external pressure.
Located on the foothills of the Western Ghats, Rajapalayam certainly sports the cleanest look among all the seven towns of Virudhunagar district. However, 18 deaths reported in the town due to dengue in 2014-2015, speaks volumes of how ill equipped the town is. Ironically, the 75 year-old town is yet to have an underground drainage facility. “That was major reason for the dengue deaths,” says T.S. Subramanian, an environmental activist. Rajapalayam is an ideal place for setting up a medical college in the district, he says.
“For people of Virudhunagar and Aruppukottai, Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, and for those from Sattur, Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital at Palayamkottai, are just 50 km away with better road accessibility. However, both the facilities are 80 km away for people of Rajapalayam and that too with narrow and congested roads,” he says. Besides, large-scale encroachment of road margins, lack of road over bridge at Chatrapatti railway level crossing is a major cause for congestion.
A link road between the new bus stand and Kollam Road will make life better for drivers and passengers of buses.
The creation of new Revenue Division at Sattur has put the people of Rajapalayam to much inconvenience as now they have to go all the way to Sattur, instead of nearby Sivakasi.
Though agriculture is a major occupation, lack of maintenance of panchayat union irrigation tanks and their supply channels is a concern for farmers.
And for those holding lands along the reserved forest of the Western Ghats, animal attack on horticulture crops is a major handicap.
“This can be easily stopped, if the State government takes off boars from the list of wild animals. States like Kerala and Gujarat have done it. Once the boars are delisted, farmers can kill them without being penalised,” N.A. Ramachandra Raja district president of Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, says.
Four-time chairperson and two-time vice-chairperson of Rajapalayam municipality A.A. Subba Raja had won Rajapalayam Assembly seat as an Independent in 1967.
His son A.A.S. Shyam, secretary of Rajus’ College, is the AIADMK candidate who is taking on businessman S. Thangapandian of DMK, who unsuccessfully contested in 2011. Others in fray are: A.N. Ramachandra Raja (BJP), A. Gurusamy of CPI (M) and P. Lakshmanan of PMK.
