​Residents of Madukkarai Panchayat attempted to surrender their family ration cards to the District Collector alleging that a pathway leading to their houses is continuously blocked by a person in the neighbourhood, here on Monday.

According to R. Tamilvaragan, he is living in a lane along with C. Muniyappan, R. Duraisamy and V.K. Govindan in separate houses for more than ten years.

Tamailragavan said that one of his neighbours had blocked the pathway to the lane saying that it belonged to him.

“We filed a complaint with the Panchayat officials and later approached the Collector in this regard. We were assured that action would be taken and were directed to the Madukkarai Tahsildar office three years ago,” he alleged.

Tamilragavan also claimed that even though the District Administration had forwarded the complaint to the Madukkarai Taluk office, the taluk officials had later asked Tamilragavan to approach the court regarding the issue.

“Even the surveyor who was sent by the Collectorate said that the pathway is public pathway and had asked the Panchayat officials to give a writ petition. Yet, they are slow in reacting,” he complained.

Tamilragavan, who intended to submit the family ration card to the District Revenue Officer T. Christi Raj in the absence of Collector Archana Patnaik, was pacified by the DRO who said that he would look into the issue immediately.

The DRO also said that strict action would be taken against the officials if they failed to react in two days.​