Residents of Thorapalli Agraharam object to merger to Hosur Corporation

Farmers of Thorapalli Agraharam panchayat petitioning Collector C. Dinesh Kumar objecting to the proposed move to expand Hosur Corporation to include Thorapalli panchayat.
| Photo Credit: N. BASHKARAN

Farmers and residents of Thogarapalli Agraharam panchayat here petitioned the Collector objecting to the proposed merger of the panchayat to Hosur Corporation, here at the Collectorate on Tuesday.

The proposed reorganisation of the Corporation wards to include Thogarapalli Agraharam would adversely impact residents, leading to a hike in property taxes and living expenses but stagnant living wages. It would also lead to scrapping of rural employment schemes and welfare programmes among others, the villagers said.

According to the residents, in 2018, when the then-Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced in the assembly that the panchayat would be brought under Hosur Corporation, the residents of the panchayat had reservations. They voiced these reservations to the then-opposition leader, M.K. Stalin, who later visited and participated in the special gram sabha. The current Chief Minister, as the leader of the opposition, assured the over 4,000 women gathered there.

The panchayat, famous for being the birthplace of C. Rajagopalachari, also has no liquor outlet, something that is rampant across panchayats. The residents fear the panchayat’s merger into Hosur Corporation may change things.

Among the residents’ primary concerns is the hike in taxes under a Corporation jurisdiction as opposed to the minimal taxes under panchayats. The panchayat, comprising Kumudepalli, Ellamakothur, and Gandhi Nagar villages, is primarily pastoral relying on livestock. According to the villagers, annual property tax commitments were hard to meet under the panchayat. A hike in taxes under the Corporation can only be met with a hike in living wages, which are bound to remain the same.

Further, over 200 families depend on the MNREGS in Thorapalli Agraharam, which will be removed once annexed to the Corporation. Further, various rural welfare schemes including Kalaignarin Kanavu Illam which had allocated 50 houses for 2023-24, would be scrapped rendering people homeless, according to the petitioners.

The residents of Thorapalli Agraharam handed over a petition voicing their opposition to the merger to Collector C. Dinesh Kumar, the new Collector of Krishnagiri.