Poor amenities, inadequate public transportation rile voters in Papanasam

Sandwiched between Thanjavur, the district headquarters, and Kumbakonam, the temple city, the Papanasam constituency continues to grapple with problems in basic amenities.

Inadequate healthcare delivery, poor public transportation, and missing crucial road links to other towns apart from the recent issue of sugarcane farmers attached to an erstwhile private sugar mill being asked to clear a loan in the fraud committed by the mill management are among the major concerns that rile the electorate.

“Though a taluk headquarters hospital functions at Papanasam, a majority of the patients requiring critical medical assistance are either referred to the Thanjavur Medical College and Hospital or to the District Headquarters Hospital at Kumbakonam,” says T. Saravanan, a social activist.

Several representations made in the past four decades for the construction of a high-level bridge connecting Karuppur with Melaramanallur, an islet on the Coleroon riverbed, in Ariyalur district, have been ignored. As Melaramanallur has already been linked with Ariyalur through a high-level bridge on its northern side, linking from Karuppur would be of immense help not only to the passengers but also help freight movement, he pointed out.

The absence of a government college, the functioning of a government library in a dilapidated private building, unreliable public/private transport, unaddressed demand for a modern rice mill and cold storage facility for flowers cultivated around Papanasam were some of the issues putforth by the electorate.

Pointing out that paddy procured from the villages at the heart of Papanasam constituency have to be taken either to the Ammanpettai modern rice mill near Thanjavur or to the Thirunageswaram mill near Kumbakonam, both at a distance of 40 km, Mr. Saravanan demanded proper storage facilities in the taluk for paddy.

Cane growers’ woes

“As far as the sugarcane cultivators are concerned, they were staging demonstrations to get their issue addressed by the State administrators, in vain for over three years from 2022. Several of them have become ineligible to avail bank loans as they were held responsible for the loans taken in their names by the erstwhile sugar mill management, which had subsequently sold the mill to another company through the National Company Law Tribunal proceedings,” said Aadhisivan of Umaiyalpuram, a progressive farmer.

Cane cultivators attached to the erstwhile sugar mill at Thirumandangudi were shocked to receive loan recovery notices from a nationalised bank during the financial year 2020-21. As their pleas failed to elicit any response from the State government, they have been staging relay demonstration since February 2022, he said.

In 2021, M.H. Jawajirullah of Manitha Neya Makkal Katchi won on a DMK symbol from the constituency. The DMK has now allotted the seat to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). However, the IUML will contest on its own symbol of a ladder.

In the ensuing contest, D. Shanmugaprabhu of the AIADMK takes on A.M. Shajahan of IUML.