Villagers oppose merger bid with Trichy city corporation

Trichy: Hundreds of villagers from Adavanthur village near Trichy city carried out a protest rally on Monday and submitted a petition to the district administration to stop merging their village with Trichy corporation. Pointing out that a majority of the population is dependent on agriculture and allied activities, the petitioners claimed that adding their panchayat to the corporation will impact their livelihood.
The Adavathur panchayat comprises 14 villages including Sunnambukaranpatti and Adaikankadu, and has more than 3,500 acres of agriculture land parcels.Irrigated by three rivers and canals including Uyyakondan, villagers said that paddy, sugarcane, and banana crops are extensively grown in the village.
Meanwhile, the corporation is gearing up to expand the city’s boundaries by merging 25-27 adjacent rural local bodies, and Adavathur is speculated to be one of the panchayats considered for the merger. With around 3,000 families residing there, locals said that the proposed merger would deny them employment under MGNREGA scheme.
“Our property tax would drastically increase once our panchayat is added to the corporation. Our village is neither densely populated nor has witnessed a major real estate boom in recent years. Adding such a complete agrarian village to the city will harm the rural population economically,” V Kodiyarasu, a resident said.
The villagers also expressed fears over conversion of cultivable land parcels into housing plots and new enforcements in rearing cattle if their village was brought under the corporation. The villagers said that they would intensify the protests until the municipal administration department excludes Adavathur from the list of villages proposed for the merger.