Agaram villagers question president’s husband attempting to run show

VELLORE: The Vellore district administration conducted classes for newly elected panchayat presidents and taught them the various laws and rules to be followed in running the day to day affairs of the local bodies. But, what the administration failed to do was to ensure that elected village heads, especially women took charge and not their spouses.

A sample of the overbearing spouse interference was witnessed on Friday when residents of Agaram village panchayat near Odugathur in Vellore boycotted the special gram sabha meet as it was the husbands of the elected president and vice president who tried to conduct the meet.

Both the posts were allocated to women (general) category and hence when the present incumbents won, locals expected to see some change. But, this was not so on Friday where they demanded to know why the men were trying to run the show in the place of their elected wives.

Both the men turned aggressive when questioned about their undue interference and insisted that they would only run the show. Irked, the residents boycotted the gram sabha meet.

Later, they also sat on the president and vice-president chairs in the panchayat office and questioned the ward members about various issues. Vexed at this behaviour, the ward members demanded to know who gave them the right to sit in the panchayat president’s chair and they too boycotted the ‘impromptu meeting.’

When asked, an official seeking anonymity said, “this worrisome trend is not new. There were also instances earlier when spouses of elected heads even attended meetings with district collectors on the ground that their wives did not understand official matters.”

Accepting the need to create awareness on this issue, he added “with residents now being fully aware of their rights, we can expect trouble when husbands try to take over their wives’ posts.”