DMK wants govt to take over Ooty race course

Udhagamandalam: The DMK and its alliance parties on Tuesday petitioned the Nilgiris collector, J Innocent Divya, to take over the Ooty race course from the Madras Race Club (MRC) to develop it as a picturesque landscape as well as to set up the proposed parking lot.
The move comes in the wake of the Madras high court’s suggestion to shift the race course from Ooty and identify 50 acres flat land elsewhere in the district for the same. Following that the district administration, along with MRC, had inspected lands at Kadaikambatty village and Beragani village in Kotagiri taluk.
The petition said they - the DMK, Congress, CPM, CPI, VCK, MDMK and other parties - felt that shifting the race course to the land identified at Kadaikambatty was a wrong choice as it was where the Badaga community perform traditional rituals for their deity ‘Heththai’ annually. It said a primary school and a burial ground were also situated there.
While appreciating the district administration’s decision to use a portion of the race course as a parking lot, the petition sought to stop racing in the Nilgiris by highlighting the big social evil of gambling. The petition said the district administration could bring the same to the court’s attention.
Pointing out that the race course was located centrally in Ooty town, they said it was a cause for traffic snarls.
They demanded the government to take over the race course through court order. “Besides setting up the parking lot, the race course could be could be developed as a picturesque landscape to attract tourists,” the petition said.