VAOs in Thanjavur protest work overload

Three days after one of their colleagues allegedly committed suicide due to "work pressure," members of Village Administrative Officers' association in the district today observed a fast protesting the "overburden" of work.
This morning the members staged a protest in front of Thanjavur Panagal building here.
At least 16 VAOs who held additional charges of 18 villages in Thanjavur taluk handed over the land maps and 20 other related documents, to the Tahsildar here last night, district president of the association, Sorna Arivalagan said today.
There are 63 revenue villages in Thanjavur taluk, but only 45 VAOs are taking care of that, she claimed.

"Already the VAOs are overburdened with frequent work like distribution of free dhoties sarries, enumeration of crop damage and so on," she said.
On February 3, M Venkatasan(34), VAO of Thalayamangalam village in Orathanadu Taluk had allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a train claiming that he did so due to pressure from officials to achieve the target to remove harmful 'Seemai Karuvelam' (prosopis) trees.