A community hall built at Rs. 20 lakh under the Anaithu
Peruratchi Anna Marumalarchi Thittam 2008-09 scheme by the erstwhile
Mathigiri Town Panchayat (now merged with Hosur Special Grade
Municipality) by the then DMK government is being used as a store room
for keeping cost-free assistance by the then DMK government and also the
present AIADMK government, according to local people.
The hall was inaugurated by the then Deputy Chief Minister
M.K. Stalin on December 6, 2009 at the inaugural function of the
Sakkilnatham Samathuvapuram in Sigarapalli panchayat near Krishnagiri.
Even after three years of opening, the community hall was
not used by the local people. Initially people refused to use the hall
citing that there was no provision for dining hall and kitchen.
Due to this, the erstwhile Town Panchayat officials
constructed a dining hall and also a kitchen at a cost of Rs. 8.75 lakh.
Immediately after the kitchen shed and dining hall were constructed,
revenue officials occupied the community hall for the purpose of storing
free colour television sets distributed by the DMK government.
After the elections, the community hall is being used as a
godown for keeping cost-free assistance such as grinders, mixies and
table lamps.
An official from Hosur Municipality told
The Hindu
on Thursday that the community hall, dining hall and kitchen shed were
built around 3,000 square feet in a 0.75 acre plot near the Town
Panchayat office in Mathirigir, now under the Hosur Municipality Ward
No. 42.
Hiring a marriage hall is a costly affair for
poor people with rural background, so the facility created for them
should be used for the purpose for which it was established, a social
worker from Mathigiri said.
When contacted, J.
Dhanasekar, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA),
told
The Hindu
that 78 such community halls had been built under various government
schemes as well as Self Sufficiency Schemes (SSS) with peoples’
participation.
He said he was yet to assess how many
of them were being used by the people.
