About Kuthambakkam
Kuthambakkam is located in Poonamallee union, Thiruvallur district of Tamilnadu. This is an agriculture-based village. It is situated 31 KMs West of Chennai and 18 KMs East of Thiruvallur. The name 'Kuthambakkam' had evolved from Koothanbakkam, which refers the famous Shiva Temple here.
Kuthambakkam Panchayat has got seven hamlets. They are,
1. Kuthambakkam North
2. Kuthambakkam Centre
3. Kuthambakkam South
4. Utkottai
5. Samathuvapuram
6. Irulapalayam
7. Kanadapalayam
This village covers an area of 36 square kilometers. It constitutes about 700 acres of wetland and 1100 acres of dry land. Nemam Kuthambakkam Lake, which is located in the West, is the water source for agriculture. This comfort of water source makes good agriculture possible. Around 9000 meters length of internal roads runs across the panchayat covering all the seven hamlets. Union roads covering 1.6 KMs are there from Vellavedu to Kuthambakkam. Irulapalayam - Padur highway and Nemam - Chetipedu Highway are connecting the village to the main road. The population of Kuthambakkam is 5190 out of which 52% are dalits.
Before the New Panchayat Raj 1996
Though this village is located near Chennai city, there were a lot of social problems that existed in this village. This was mainly because of many landless schedule caste families leading their life in absolute poverty. The problems that prevailed were,
- Illicit arrack brewing activities and easy availability of illicit liquor
- Caste clashes between dalits and non dalits
- Inadequate basic facilities like, safe drinking water, drainage and internal roads
- No regular income due to unemployment
- No assurance to food
- Violence against women and children existed.
After the New Panchayat Raj 1996
Notable changes happened due to the following steps taken by the panchayat.
- Panchayat prepared a five year plan for a holistic development
- Ensured people's participation in Gram Sabha
- Pathways were created for social transformation through social integration programs
- Livelihood creations by value addition of village produces within the village
- Housing for all
- Organising the poor people in to self help groups
- Activities were planned using good database with the help of information technology
- Village information centre
- Rehabilitation programmes for those who are rescued from the illicit arrack brewing activity.
- Water bodies were deepened to increase storage capacity
- New check dams constructed.
These programmes were implemented phase by phase, which paved way for social and economical development in the village.
|
