From parttime sweeper to panchayat president, a rise thanks to democracy
Kollam: When A Anandavalli entered the Pathanapuram block Panchayat in Kerala nearly decade ago as a part-time sweeper, she would never have dreamt she would rise to head the local body one day.
Symbolising empowerment of oppressed classes, the 46- year old CPI(M) member belonging to scheduled caste has become the president of the Panchayat after the recent local body elections.
"I never thought that I would occupy such a high post, that too in an office where I had been doing a part-time sweeper's job," Anandavalli, a mother of two, said.
The CPI(M)-led LDF, which won majority of the seats in the recently held civic polls, proposed her name for the Pathanapuram block panchayat president's post.
Fielded by CPI(M), Anandavalli had won the SC general seat with a comfortable margin from the Thalavoor division in the polls.
In the 13-member block panchayat, the LDF won seven seats while the main opposition, the Congress-led UDF got six.
After being elected as the LDF leader in the council, she took charge as the president on December 30. The president's post was reserved for SC/woman.
"My villagers are very happy," she said when asked about the response from the family, friends and locals about her achievement.
Anandavalli belongs to a CPI(M) family. Her husband Mohanan is a local committee member of the party.
She said all officials in the block office, whom she used to serve tea till last week, were also "very happy" to see her take up the top post of the block panchayat.
"They all had encouraged me to contest the elections.
I was a bit reluctant then. It was because of their persuasion, I decided to fight the election. They all supported me," said Anandavalli, who is a branch committee member of the CPI(M).
Anandavalli said her focus now is to pick up the basics of administration and serve the people better. When she worked as a part-time sweeper, she used to do the job of an attendant also.
She used to enter the hall where project review meetings were held to serve tea and water for the then president, officials and council members.
"I used to listen to the points being raised by the members during the review meeting then. I had a lot of ideas about it. Now, I will study everything-- from the official procedures to the necessary paperwork," she said.
Anandavalli, who studied upto pre-degree, said she would be able to do justice to the post with the help of her party colleagues and the officials.
"I hope I will be able to do good work for the people who elected us. That is my only prayer," she said.
Anandavalli joined the panchayat office as a part-time sweeper in 2011. She used to draw a meagre Rs 2,000 till 2017. It was hiked to Rs 6,000 later.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
