Tiruvarur - Municipal Administration and Politics

Municipal Administration and Politics

Until 1860 Thiruvarur was a head quarters of a separate taluka. It was declared a third grade municipality in 1914 during British times. It was promoted to a first grade municipality in 1978. The municipality has 30 wards and there is an elected councillor for each of those wards. The municipality has seven revenue villages: Vilamal, Vijayaruram, Thiruvarur south, Thiruvarur North, Keelakavadhukudi, Ramage, Sundaravilakam and Kidaramkondan. The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: general administration/personnel, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, Town planning and Information Technology (IT). All these departments are under the control of a Municipal Commissioner who is the executive head. The legislative powers are vested in a body of 30 members, one each from the 30 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected Chairperson assisted by a Deputy Chairperson. Tiruvarur district was created in January 1997 and Tiruvarur town became the district head quarters.

Thiruvarur comes under the Thiruvarur assembly constituency and it elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years. Till 2006, the constituency was reserved for SC (Scheduled Caste) candidates. From the 1977 elections, the assembly seat was won by DMK for five times during 1977, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011 elections and Communist Party of India for four times during 1980, 1984, 1989 and 1991 elections. The current MLA of the constituency is Muthuvel Karunanidhi, ex-chief minister and the leader of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Thiruvarur is a part of the Nagapattinam (Lok Sabha constituency) – it has the following six assembly constituencies – Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Thiruthuraipoondi, Vedaranyam, Kilvelur (SC) and Nannilam. The current Member of Parliament from the constituency is A.K.S. Vijayan from the DMK. From 1957, the Nagapattinam parliament seat was held by the Indian National Congress for five times during 1957–1961, 1962–67,, 1967-71, 1991–96, and 1996–98 elections. CPI won the seat for 5 times during 1971–77, 1977–80, 1989–91, 1996–98 and 1998 elections. DMK won 4 times during 1980–84,, 1999–2004, 2004–09 and 2011 elections. ADMK won the seat once during 1984–89.

Law and order in the town in maintained by the Thiruvarur sub division of the Tamil Nadu Police headed by a Deputy Superintendent. There are three police stations in the town, one of them being an all-women police station. There are special units like prohibition enforcement, district crime, social justice and human rights, district crime records and special branch that operate at the district level police division headed by a Superintendent of Police.