A. Anandavalli newly elected block panchayat President took the oath and charges of the office on the 30th of December.
A. Anandavalli who worked as a cleaning staff for nearly a decade became the President of the Pathanapuram block panchayat.
The 46 year old Ms. Anandavalli was elected from the Thalavoor division. She said she was in for the biggest surprise of her life when the party leadership proposed her name for the position.
After the oath taking ceremony, Ms. Anandavalli said, “My candidature was not much of a surprise and I was confident about the electoral outcome too. I was not expecting this, but today is one of the happiest days in my life and I am well aware of the huge responsibility handed over to me.”
The two major parties in the 13 member block panchayat are the Left Democratic Front (LDF) with 7 seats and the United Democratic Front (UDF) with 6 seats.
The post given to Ms. Anandavalli was reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) woman.
Highlighting the early life of Ms. Anandavalli, she could not continue her education after pre degree and in the early 1990s worked as a pre primary teacher and ayah.
Ms. Anandavalli started as a cleaning staff at the block panchayat in 2011 and continued till 2017. Her salary till 2017 was Rs. 2,000 which was hiked recently to Rs. 6,000. She said, ” Salary was hiked to ₹6,000 three years ago. Though I was taken as a cleaning staff, I used to do the work of office attendant as well.”
During the oath ceremony Ms. Anandavalli showed determination and said she would learn the process and would work for the development.
Ms. Anandavalli said, “I have seen how the office functions, but I will have to learn the official procedures and paperwork. Also, I will have to study about the issues that require immediate attention.”
Anandavalli contested the recently concluded local bodies elections in Kerala for the Communist Party of India [CPI(M)] won with a margin of 654 votes.
Stay tuned for further updates.
