TIRUPATHUR: Ambur is often synonymous with leather industries and crowded biriyani shops. This brisk town, located along the busy Chennai- Bengaluru National Highway, is also riddled with damaged roads, poor health infrastructure and lacks a drainage system. The battle for the upcoming local body polls for Ambur municipality will be fought on a host of civic issues left unattended for over a decade.
According to G Velan, an auto driver here, "Around 90 per cent of the town doesn't have roads and several people are injured in accidents." Residents also allege that the streets are not cleaned properly. Though waste recycling is carried out by the local body, people state it isn't effective. "Garbage is dumped at five places including in the water bodies and near residential areas. Construction debris, other waste and drainage trash are also dumped into the Palar river," said A Babu, from Pookadai Bazaar.
Issues of poor sanitation also plagues the town, said residents, demanding better healthcare services. They added that infrastructure at the Ambur Government hospital is substandard and alleged even ambulances take bumpy rides, owing to poor roads. The hospital has a shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical staff and it needs more equipment, locals asserted.
Labourers of the leather factories and tanneries, especially women workers, are the backbone of the local economy. Around 75,000 women from the surrounding 250 villages work at the factories here. But, they lack basic amenities.
Though Ambur is located at a prime spot on the highway, long-distance buses don't have stops here. "Even the buses from Vellore and Tirupathur do not enter the bus stand. Commuters have to run behind the bus and wait on the road under scorching heat. We need buses to stop at the stand for a few minutes," said HM Wajeed, another resident. Locals contend the bus stand is in a poor condition and needs a big upgrade.
Apart from bus facilities, residents have a long list of demands for their soon-to-be elected representatives: cleaning of Palar, removing encroachments on the water bodies, an MLA office for Ambur Assembly constituency, a traffic police station, an integrated government offices' complex.
Currently, the town has mostly private schools, institutions that are run on religious lines. Locals said they need a common government higher secondary school and a college, as several students travel to Vaniyambadi, Tirupathur and Vellore for colleges.
As per the 2011 census, Hindus and Muslims comprise 50 per cent of Ambur's population each. Christians are minorities and the municipality has a seizable SC population.
AIADMK contests on its own in 36 wards in Ambur municipality. In the DMK alliance, four seats were shared with Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), three for Manidhaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK), one for the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and the party fields candidates in the rest of the wards. Some Congress party members are contesting as independents as the party was not allotted seats in the DMK alliance. BJP, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), Makkal Neethi Maiam and Naam Tamilar parties also contesting from some wards.