Date:10/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/10/stories/2007031008070400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Communist parties surprised over Madurai Collector's transfer

S. Dorairaj

Developments are a "bad precedent": CPI State secretary

CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have expressed surprise over the repeated replacement of the Madurai Collector over the last 10 months.

CPI (M) State secretary N. Varadarajan said the abrupt transfer of Collector T. Udhayachandran had led to a big debate in Madurai district. It was during his tenure that the "organised subversion of the mandatory poll" for the three panchayats of Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nattarmangalam where the post of president was reserved for Dalits was thwarted and elections successfully held, he recalled.

Mr. Udhayachandran's successor, D. Karthikeyan, took charge on February 21 and went on leave after a few days. S.S. Jawahar was now the Senior Collector. Describing the developments as a "bad precedent," CPI State secretary D. Pandian said the serial transfers had raised apprehensions in the minds of the elected presidents of the three panchayats, which had a chequered record.

Referring to the decision by the presidents of Pappapatti, Keeripatti and Nattarmangalam to quit fearing that development and welfare activities in the villages under the grassroots level local bodies would come to a halt following the latest shifting of the Collector, Mr. Varadarajan said the CPI (M) leaders had persuaded them to continue in office. The party had assured them that they would have the backing of democratic forces and the State Government, he added.

The Madurai District (rural) committee of the CPI (M) condemned the transfer of the Collectors.

"From where did the pressure come to shift the Collectors? This question looms large in the minds of the people. These changes, effected in violation of the norm that administrative changes must be above controversies, will pose obstacles in the path of development of the district and smooth functioning of the district administration," the party committee said on March 3.

"The way in which the Madurai Collector handled the situation in the three panchayats and held elections peacefully and successfully had won the acclaim of one and all. His role in this regard was commended by the Chief Minister at a meeting held in Chennai to felicitate the three Dalit panchayat presidents," Mr. Pandian said.