Colleagues blame work pressure for VAO suicide

It is said, M Venkatesan (34) of Reddipalayam has been working as a VAO in Thalayamangalam village of Orathanadu taluk jumped infront of the train at Reddipalayam railway gate on Saturday wee hours. 

The Railway police recovered the body and sent it to the Thanjavur Government Hospital for post mortem and are investigating. Venkatesan got married six months back. 

Meanwhile, the VAOs’ union charged that Venkatesan was under work pressure for the past few days and was complaining to them about torture by his higher officials. “He joined as VAO two years back and recently, he appeared dejected and was complaining that higher officials had been presserising him to submit the drought report without giving him time for proper preparation and this could have led him to take the extreme step,” said Orathanadu taluk VAO union president Jeevanandam. 

Similarly, Thanjavur Tahsildhar Gurumurthy also claimed that, the higher officials recently asked them to conduct enumeration for bio metric ration card and  soon after, they asked them to complete the distribution of free dhoti and saree within three days. And, even asked them to prepare the drought affected list and “now the officials are asking to remove the seema karuvelam trees. 

How can we complete all these works simultaneously,” he asked and appealed the IAS officials to inform the state level officials about the impossibility of completion of works. 

In the evening when the Thanajvur RDO C Suresh came to the GH where the post mortem was taking place, the members of the VAO union besieged him and demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the family of Venkatesan and a government job for his wife. 

After the RDO’s assurance to take their demand to the district collector, the members along with the family members of Venkatesan received the body.