Twenty-five years ago, residents in Se.Gudalur, a small farming village located around 10 km from Tiruvannamalai town, built a small room by pooling their resources to run their panchayat office. Their elected members had their regular meetings outside the office due to its cramped space.
Now, it has been replaced with an office built at a cost of ₹17.64 lakh by the Rural Development Department. Accompanied by Collector B. Murugesh, the panchayat office was opened by State Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports E.V. Velu. The village is his hometown, where he did his schooling before moving to the town.
“During monsoon, we used to relocate record books to the village elder’s house from the old panchayat building. The new office has a separate records room,” said S. Sekar, secretary, Se.Gudalur village panchayat.
The new panchayat office has a large conference room to hold monthly meetings by elected members.
Visitors also have a waiting room with toilets and faucets. The office is lit with LED lights and runs on solar power.
