DEO office at Vaniyambadi not an ideal venue, rue teachers

Vellore revenue district earlier had two educational districts headquartered at Vellore and Tirupattur (around 85 km away) respectively. The State government, in an effort bid to streamline the jurisdiction of field officials of the school education department, opened additional DEO offices all over Tamil Nadu. 

Thus, new DEO offices were opened at Vaniyambadi, Arakkonam and Ranipet on June 1. Although there has been a long-standing demand for opening new DEO offices in Vellore district, teachers said the newly-established office at Vaniyambadi is just 16 km away from the DEO’s office at Tirupattur. 

According to SN Janardhanan, State general secretary, Vocational Teachers Federation, “Teachers from Paradarami and Pernambut will now have to travel over 70 km to reach Vaniyambadi. The government should have selected Ambur, if at all a new office was necessary.” 

Even political parties have also criticised the government for opening the office at Vaniyambadi. “Why should the office be opened at Vaniyambadi when Gudiyattam was a better choice?” asked Gudiyattam AMMK town secretary E Nithyanandam. Gudiyattam resident K Sathyamurthy said, “Gudiyattam lacking political clout is the reason for this situation. 

With local AIADMK MLA Jayanthi Padmanabhan siding with the TTV camp, commercial taxes minister KC Veeramani repeatedly announced that he will work for Gudiyattam’s improvement and that the public could approach him for any help. However, the opposite seems to have happened in this issue.” 

When contacted, Jayanthi Padmanabhan told DTNext, “Gudiyattam is the appropriate location for the DEO’s office as the town and its surroundings have the most number of schools.” Minister Veeramani was unavailable for comment. Education department sources revealed that a DEO’s office at Gudiyattam was under consideration.