உள்ளாட்சிஅமைப்புகள் மூலம் மக்களுக்கு ஏற்படும் சுகாதார சீர்கேடுகளை சரிசெய்யவேண்டிய மக்கள் பிரதிநிதிகள் இல்லாததும் டெங்கு பாதிப்புக்கான காரணம்

DMK working president M.K. Stalin declared on September 28, 2017, that the complete absence of elected local body representatives directly aggravated the catastrophic dengue epidemic across Tamil Nadu. Stalin pointed out that because the ruling AIADMK repeatedly postponed municipal and panchayat elections, grassroots public health management and sanitation monitoring had collapsed. Without ward councilors, town panchayat members, or village panchayat presidents to hold sanitation contractors accountable, heaps of uncollected garbage and blocked drains multiplied unabated.

Stalin observed that elected civic representatives served as the vital first line of democratic defense during seasonal epidemics. Local ward leaders possessed direct knowledge of clogged culverts, water supply contamination, and neglected alleys requiring immediate chemical fogging. With governance surrendered entirely to overburdened or indifferent special officers, citizens had nowhere to register urgent sanitation complaints, leaving breeding mosquitoes unchecked in densely inhabited residential settlements.

The DMK leader demanded that the state election commission immediately conduct long-overdue local body elections. He emphasized that genuine public health administration required democratic decentralization. Stalin affirmed that restoring elected civic councils was crucial to revitalizing municipal hygiene across Tamil Nadu.