Rangasamy Velu (born 26 July 1940), is an Indian politician of the

Pattali Makkal Katchi The Pattali Makkal Katchi (; PMK) is a caste-based political party in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by S. Ramadoss in 1989 to provide political representation for the Vanniyar caste, a community found throughout Northern Tamil Nadu. It is a ...

(PMK) party. He was elected to the

14th Lok Sabha The 14th Lok Sabha (2 June 2004 – 18 May 2009) was convened after the 2004 Indian general election held in four phases during 20 April – 10 May 2004, which led to the formation of first Manmohan Singh ministry (2004–2009). Indian National ...

as Union Minister of State, Railways from Arakkonam Lok Sabha constituency of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

from 2004 to 2009.

Early life and education

Born into a family of traditional farmers, Dr. Velu was educated at the local government-run High School in the Pudupalayam Village. A keen young learner, he excelled in academics and went to the Voorhees College, Vellore to pursue a Bachelors' course in Economics to obtain his first degree. After it, he never stopped learning; he went on to pursue many more courses and added a long line of degrees to his name. He is a Bachelor of Law from the Madras Law College, Master of Business Administration, and was a resident of the Bishop Heber Hall. He completed a PhD in Disaster Management while being well into his sixties. He is an avid reader, a connoisseur of books and is an indiscriminating seeker and acceptor of knowledge unknown to him.

Career

Velu has been a bureaucrat almost throughout his entire career timeline. He served as Additional Registrar, Co-operative Societies of Tamil Nadu; director, Municipal Administration; and Joint Commissioner, Revenue Administration. He also was conferred to be an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, in recognition of his potential. He became the District Collector of Tirunelveli twice, serving during and helping curb immense caste violence. He later served as a member of the Tamil Nadu Service Commission. He joined politics to be elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from the Arakkonam Constituency of Tamil Nadu with a margin of 1,02,196 votes. He took office as Union Minister of State for Railways in 2004 as a part of the first

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

government.

Current life

Velu has authored and published his autobiography titled "En Vāzhkai Payanam" in Tamil on the request of late former Indian president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He now lives in Chennai as a retired politician and bureaucrat, pursuing charity and helping build a temple in his village, along with his family.

References

Living people Indian Tamil people Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu 1940 births India MPs 2004–2009 Union ministers of state of India Pattali Makkal Katchi politicians Union ministers from Tamil Nadu National Democratic Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election {{TamilNadu-politician-stub