Ooty man to run for '16 TN Assembly polls

Coimbatore: Dharmalingam Venugopal, a former IOB economist and director of the Nilgiris Documentation Centre has announced plans to contest as an independent candidate from Ooty constituency in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.
Venugopal, coordinator of the 'Save The Nilgiris' campaign, told reporters in Chennai on Monday that his will campaign under the 'Vote for Ooty' banner to highlight serious issues faced by locals in the hill station, hitherto ignored by legislators.
In February, Venugopal plans to undertake a tour covering 231 booths in Ooty, to reach out to two lakh voters and make a list of their demands.
Since 2006, the 62-year-old economist-turned-activist has been running the Nilgiris Documentation Centre and Nilgiri History Museum, conducted environmental awareness programs, helped launched a financial inclusion plan for tribal people of The Nilgiris and a self-employment training centre for tribal women.
"Ooty gets 25 lakh visitors a year, from India and abroad. This number is likely to increase but pollution and garbage disposal continues to be a major issue," he said. Ooty, he said, "has the problems of any major city but the governance is like in a panchayat."
Despite locals raising the issue of the Ooty race course land lying unused for most part of the year, he alleged that there has been little action from the authorities to convert it into a multi-purpose centre.
He pointed out that The Nilgiris was getting financial assistance from the Planning Commission, under the Hill Area Development Programme, which ended after the commission was scrapped in 2014. "Now the funds are given to state governments as a bulk amount. Citizens need a strong, trustworthy voice to speak up for Ooty and ensure that funds are allotted for development," he said. tnn