Yelagiri Hills summer festival gets off to a colourful start

Fruit and flower show was one of the attractions of the summer festival

crowd puller: Visitors at the summer festival in Yelagiri Hills on Saturday. - Photo: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The two-day annual summer festival at Yelagiri Hills, which is popularly known as “Poor man’s Ooty”, got off to a colourful start on Saturday. There was plenty in store at the fest for the visitors. The fruit and flower show at the Nature Park was one of the attractions, while sale of products by women Self Help Groups also drew crowds to the stalls at the festival venue.

Various government departments such as Agriculture, Forest, Social Welfare, Rural Development and Health had set up stalls to showcase their activities and schemes as part of an exhibition.

Dance and music programmes enthralled the visitors. Myriad performances by folk artists were crowd pullers. Film music performances were also lined up. Commercial Taxes Minister K.C. Veeramani, Tourism Minister N. Natarajan and Labour Welfare Minister Nilofer Khafeel took part in the inaugural ceremony. Mr. Natarajan assured to take steps to develop Yelagiri Hills into a better tourism spot.

G. Achudhan, panchayat president of Yelagiri requested the Ministers to take steps to desilt the check dams on the hill to conserve rain water. He urged them to extend the Combined Water Supply Scheme with river Cauvery as source to the hill.

Hostel facility

Another demand that he put forward was need for a hostel facility for girl school students. He also wanted patta to be given to the tribals. “Electricity connection was provided for the hills nearly 50 years ago but still, some of the remote villages are yet to get connection. A sub-station should be set up to provide power,” he said.

A. Nallathambi, Member of Legislative Assembly, Tirupattur urged the Tourism Minister to develop Pudurnadu as a tourism spot, while Collector R. Nanthagopal requested for funds to develop the tourism potential of Yelagiri.

Minister Nilofer Khafeel said that the Tourism Minister will be inspecting the Andiappanur dam and requested him to recommend to the Chief Minister to declare the place as a tourism spot.

Minister K.C. Veeramani said that many from Chennai and Bengaluru were visiting Yelagiri Hills every week. “The Tourism Minister should allot more funds to bring in new attractive schemes for the hill,” he requested.

Among others, Manohar Singh, project officer of District Rural Development Agency spoke.