Thiruverumbur voters announce poll boycott over service roads

Trichy: Federation for Retrieval of Trichy Palpannai-Thuvakudi Service Road has announced its decision to boycott the assembly elections in frustration over the imbroglio prevailing in constructing service roads on Trichy-Thanjavur NH. In a letter to district collector and election officer V Saravanan, members of the federation from Thiruverumbur constituency have conveyed that they will not vote on April 23 since the 16-year-old demand has been ignored by major political parties since 2016."Due to the interventions of a few selfish traders, efforts for the 14.5-km-long service roads on Trichy-Thanjavur NH are put on hold by successive govts. Since political parties just use the service roads solution assurance as a poll promise but ignore it soon after elections, we will not participate in the assembly election this time," K Rajendran, general secretary of the federation, said. The NH passes through 10 densely populated wards of Kattur, Ariyamangalam and Thiruverumbur of Trichy corporation and the stretch has reported multiple fatal and non-fatal accidents involving motorists and pedestrians. Residents termed the recent move of the district administration to acquire land for service roads as a poll appeasement.