Poet Sugathakumari on Thursday called upon the Travancore Devaswom Board to use the funds at its disposal to help the marginalised.

“A lot of money is spent on superstitious and ritualistic practices such as ‘vedikettu’ and ‘ezhunnelippu’ of elephants. The board should take up more charitable activities such as educating poor children, building houses for the homeless, providing treatment to the ill,” she said.

She was speaking after accepting the first ONV Puraskaram from veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader V.S. Achuthanandan here on Thursday.

The award has been instituted by Thidambu, the art and cultural organisation of the Travancore Devaswom Board employees, in memory of poet O.N.V. Kurup.

Mr. Achuthanandan said like ONV, Ms. Sugathakumari too gave voice to the Malayali’s problems and emotions through her verse. She campaigned for promoting Malayalam language. She did not just write about Naturen but also waged struggles to conserve it.

Minister for Devaswom Kadakampally Surendran presented the Mannathu Padmanabhan memorial citation to oncologist V.P. Gangadharan. An aid of Rs.1 lakh to the Regional Cancer Centre was presented by TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan to Regional Cancer Centre public relations officer Surendran Chunakkara.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Staff Reporter / Thiruvananthapuram – July 08th, 2016