V Devanathan, TNN Apr 21, 2013, 02.31AM IST
MADURAI: Residents
of Thirali, a panchayat of 5,400 people in Madurai district, were
unaware all these years that a three-acre agricultural plot in the
possession of a villager was once a water tank. For more than half a
century, the owner was farming in the land.
Recently,
the panchayat recovered the land and restored it to its original
state of a water body. In the past one-and-a-half years, Thirali
panchayat has recovered about 50 acres of village land that had been
encroached upon for several years.
Villagers
attribute this remarkable land recovery spree to the 52-year-old
woman panchayat president Chandra Pitchai. Pitchai, who was recently
awarded the best woman panchayat president in Madurai district, has
been working for long to make Thirali a model panchayat.
One of her
initiatives was to make villagers pay taxes. Now, Thirali residents
proudly claim that none in the village defaults on taxes. "Initially,
residents didn't support me when I insisted that they pay the taxes
properly. Similarly, they were against removal of encroachments.
However, they gradually understood the importance of paying taxes and
the advantages of keeping the river area free of encroachments,"
she says.
Pitchai describes
herself as uneducated though she can read and write Tamil and
English. She even took an initiative to provide free tuition to
students from the villages up to Class 12.
©2013 Bennett,
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