R SANKAR STUDY CENTRE

R SANKAR STUDY CENTRE

The Thiruvananthapuram city will soon have another cultural hub. The centre for commemorating the socio-political contributions of R Sankar, the state's third chief minister, is coming up near the Provident Fund office at Pattom.Foundation chairman and Congress leader T Saratchandra Prasad said the proposed  R. Sankar Study Centre would house a research library, a research centre and a conference hall. The state government had recently allotted 10 cents of land to the foundation for the purpose.

KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala will lay the foundation stone for the memorial building on November 7, the 39th death anniversary day of R Sankar. An avid organizer who made significant contributions to Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Sangham (SNDP) and strengthened the Congress party in Kerala as Pradesh Congress Committee preidentt, R Sankar catapulted the Congress party to power in the 1960  Assembly elections. He handled the finance portfolio in the Pattom Thanu Pillai government and become the state's chief minister in 1962 after the resignation of Pattom.

Corporation mayor K Chandrika will release the design of the proposed study centre by presenting a prototype of the building to former KPCC president K Muraleedharan during the foundation stone laying ceremony. CPI leaders and former ministers C Divakaran and K P Rajendran will deliver the R Sankar memorial lectures on the occasion. Work on the statue of R Sankar is progressing under the leadership of sculptor Sidhan. The foundation has also appealed to the government to allot a befitting place to install the statue of the former chief minister, Saratchandra Prasad said.

                                                                          Prof. John Kurakar