HAPPENING -- 14:

CITIZEN’S FORUM VOWS TO MAKE OOTY A BETTER PLACE

P S SUNDAR

The Citizen’s Forum of Ootacamund has vowed to make Ooty a better place to live by focussing attention on improving the living conditions for both the residents and the tourists.

This follows my observation in my Chief Guest’s address at the Installation ceremony held at Gem Park Hotel, Ooty, on Feb 28, 2019.

“It is time for us to think of ‘Future Ooty’.  We should leave Ooty a better place for our children than the one we inherited or are living at present as we deem that we have borrowed this tourist town from our children rather than inherited it from our forefathers”, I asserted.

I motivated the new office bearers as also the members of the Citizen’s Forum to identify the ‘Agenda for Future Ooty’ as CITIZEN as an abbreviation to expand into Civic issues, Isolation of illegal activities, Tourism development, Involvement, Zeal, Environment and Nature.

Earlier, senior member Padmini Suresh installed Kamlesh Kataria as President for 2019-20.  

In turn, he installed Nandhi Ravi as Secretary and Abhishek Bothra as Treasurer.

l-r: Nandhi Ravi, Kamlesh Kataria & Abhishek Bothra.

Former President Rohit Jain introduced Kamlesh while senior member Rashmi Praveen introduced me.

Kamlesh said that the Forum would serve as a bridge between the citizens and officials for developing sustainable tourism and infrastructure.

He requested the district administration to publish the draft copy of the new master plan so that the Forum could suggest the modifications to make it easier for the residents to build houses.

He also asked for multi-level parking, sports complex, total ban on plastics, safe roads, streetlights, safe drinking water and smart toilets.

The outgoing President Balasubramani adorned Kamlesh with the President’s collar.

The outgoing Secretary Nagaraj presented Annual Report and the outgoing Treasurer Babu, the Annual Accounts.

The new team took groups photos separately with the members of various service organisations.

(Response can also be sent to: pssundar.coonoor@gmail.com)