Chennai: Ten years after his candidacy for the contest in the local agency poll was rejected by disability, a Kavitha from Kapiperi Navamal Village in Villupuram Regency was in the field of rural polls in Tamil Nadu.
The nominee rejection in 2011 paved the way to change the law to enable people with hearing and speech disorders and those affected by leprosy to oppose the polls.
Kavitha, 34, who has a hearing and speech disorder, is now fighting for the position of the neighborhood council in Navamal Kapiperi Panchayat.
The rejection of the Kavitha nominated paper in 2011 with the reason the disability triggered protests to eliminate the subection on the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994, which forbade people with hearing and speech disorders and those affected by leprosy from polling.
Different Aled’s activists and forum protested and siege placed at the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission office in Chennai.
After a continuous struggle, the government brought amendments on November 15, 2012 to act.
It was removed “deafness, mute and people affected by leprosy” from sub-part 3 of section 3 (no one who qualifies for elections as a member or president or chairman of Panchayat) and publishes it in the Gazette of the Government.
“There is a difficult battle, but fighting in the poll itself like winning for us.
This gives a lot of trust to the community (which is different),” said Kavitha v R Thangarasu’s father, who is also a disabled person.
Daughters and dads each fight in Ward 3 and 4 in Pancrayat.
Kavitha has been allocated a ‘key’ symbol for the contest in the poll.
“We hope it will unlock obstacles and provide opportunities for us to serve the community and prove something,” said Thangarasu.
They were among the 40 odd defects in the commotion for the position of members of the Council of Panchayat Village, the Council of District and Union in local countryside polls in nine districts dissolved.
Most of them come from the Villupuram district, Chengalpet and Kancheepuram.
“I don’t want to be a spectator.
So, I decided to compete and prove to the community that we were no less than anyone,” said Sathyaraj, a 33-year-old graduate, who is one of the 10 candidates in the commotion to post a member of the District Environment in Kallakurichi’s Chinna Salem Taluk.
“I suffered a serious spinal injury after I fell from a coconut tree 21 years ago.
After lying in bed for several years, I struggled to stand alone.
I want to serve the village and provide corruption-free administration and improve facilities in my village if I was elected, “said Vannadasan aged 43 years, which fought with Pan Panciran President at KottiyamPoondi Panchayat.
A farmer, Kannadasan is ready to release manifesto in two days.
Deepak Nathan, the founder of the December 3 Movement, said the candidates were revealed to create a defective presence in the administrative position.