Tiruvarur (Tamil Nadu), Oct 13 K Annamalai, former BJP leader and founder of the ‘We The Leaders’ movement, on Tuesday said selfless volunteers at the grassroots level should be groomed to take up leadership roles in civic bodies so that they can effectively address local issues for the benefit of the people.
Addressing supporters here, Annamalai criticised conventional party politics for “prioritising short-term electoral gains and party-hopping” over sustained local development.
“Just one Annamalai is like testing a single grain of rice to judge an entire pot. It will not work! We need leaders in all 234 Assembly constituencies, 12,525 panchayats and across hundreds of thousands of local representative positions,” he said.
“During elections, leaders campaign street by street. But will they visit our homes every day afterwards? Will they solve our basic problems? The answer is no. That is why we must develop local leaders who work selflessly, without expecting anything in return, to address these issues,” he said.
“They must undertake tasks such as cleaning lakes and ponds, clearing water bodies, maintaining places of worship, and planting and nurturing trees for future generations,” he added.
Selfless volunteers must be groomed to lead at the local level, he said, if civic problems were to be resolved effectively.
Earlier, Annamalai joined local volunteers in planting 15,000 tree saplings across 11 acres in Thalaiyamangalam in Tiruvarur district under the foundation’s ongoing statewide green initiative, ‘Thiruvanam’.
“Planting trees is not just about protecting the environment; it is also our duty to future generations. Protecting soil fertility, increasing green cover and safeguarding natural resources for the next generation are the responsibility of each one of us,” he said.
Annamalai said the foundation had organised more than 2,700 environmental protection events across Tamil Nadu in recent months and planted over 13 lakh saplings.
“May this people’s movement continue. Let us nurture trees, protect the soil and create a green, prosperous Tamil Nadu,” he said.
(PTI News)
