MLAs’ demand for office room in Vellore Corpn irks employees

According to the aggrieved employees, of the 60 wards in Vellore Corporation, 36 come under Vellore Assembly segment, another 17 fall under Katpadi constituency, while 6 wards will form part of Anaicut constituency. The remaining 1 comes under Arcot constituency.

This has resulted in MLAs, P Karthikeyan (Vellore) and AP Nandakumar (Anaicut) being allocated offices in the Corporation’s main building, while another room is being readied for Katpadi MLA and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan. Arcot MLA JL Eswarappan is the only representative, who has not sought the same facility till date, sources revealed. When news of this broke, locals were peeved at the MLAs’ tactics. “What prevented them from asking for such a facility when the AIADMK was in power as all were legislators even then,” asked PK Natarajan a local resident. Karthikeyan has a legislator’s office, 1 km from the Corporation, provided by the government.

J Kumar, a long-time resident of the town, said “this is what happens when the local body expands. When it was a mere municipality, the then MLAs, VM Devaraj, C Gnanasekaran and VS Vijay, did not seek offices in the local body premises. They either used the MLAs office or their houses to meet people as the MLA represented the entire local body.” While Karthikeyan has been given the deputy chairman’s room, AC fixtures are being readied for the room allotted to Nandakumar.

Duraimurugan seeking a room has left people perplexed as he has not used his MLA office, given by the government, at Katpadi for more than 10 years and he would meet people only at his house. His son and Vellore MP DM Kathir Anand has been allotted an office in the old municipal office in zone III, officials revealed. Former MLA of Anaicut M Kalaiarasu, said “MLAs are claiming rooms as a matter of prestige. There is no need for this as government has already provided offices for them.” But, Corporation employees are clearly not happy at having to vacate space to make way for the legislators.