Kancheepuram district collector suspends two village panchayat prez

CHENNAI: The Kancheepuram district collector suspended two village panchayat presidents who misused their powers and spent a lot of money from the government funds on Wednesday.

Savithri Manikandan was elected as the president of the Uthukadu village panchayat in Kancheepuram and he belongs to the DMK party. In the past year, Savithri had spent 16.85 lakh from the funds for repairing the panchayat office, purchasing bleaching powders, streetlamps, and water supply maintenance. The block development officers recently found that Savithri had spent more money than she is allowed to spend in a year and since her husband holds a posting in the DMK party he allegedly interfered in the village panchayat administration and spent all the money.

Similarly, the Athanor village panchayat president Tamil Amudan from the DMK party had spent 68.96 lakh on buying LED lamps, electric garbage collecting vehicles, water and for panchayat office maintenance. On information from BDO, the Kancheepuram district collector M Aarthi on Wednesday suspended both the presidents and ordered they cannot sign in the cheque hereafter and all the financial transactions should be approved only by the BDO.