The district administration has ordered Vellore Tahsildar to convene the meeting with the ward members under provisions of Section 205 of Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, following a plethora of complaints and allegations levelled against the panchayat president.
The meeting in this regard was held on Tuesday at the panchayat office.
Of the 12 ward members, nine voted against panchayat president and gave their statement in writing that they had “no confidence” in him. They also demanded action against him for siphoning off lakhs of rupees meant for development works. Three other councillors voted in support of the president.
The inquiry had also divulged that the president had converted an acre of land into a housing plot without getting the consent of the officials. “Director of Town Planning is the authorised official to issue clearance to convert land into housing plots. However, the panchayat president violated the rules,” said an official.
Apart from this, he had also swindled lakhs of rupees in the name of development works. “Panchayat presidents are not empowered to issue self-cheques for other purposes apart from transportation charges and salary to the employees of the local body. However, Thellur panchayat president Saravanan had issued more than 39 cheques to the tune of `3.63 lakh between December 2, 2011 and January 12, 2012, citing development works,” a source citing information availed under the RTI Act said.
Apart from this, he had also swindled `1.31 lakh recently citing repair of streetlights, the official said and added that the report about the special meeting along with the statements of the councillors would be submitted to the assistant director of Panchayat. He, in turn, would forward it to the Collector, who would take further course of action.
374 total views, 1 views today