Palakkad gears up for Onam festivities

Palakkad: Minister for law and culture A K Balan has said here on Sunday that the five-day Onam celebrations starting from September 10 would have programmes to remember poet Rabindranath Tagore. It will also feature music and dance programme of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland.

A cultural team comprising 150 members from these states would perform as part of the programme, the minister said.

Rabindra Sangeetham is included in this year’s Onam celebration to commemorate the centenary year of the visit of Tagore on February 7 and 8, 1919, in Palakkad when he was given a purse of Rs 1,008 for the development of Shanthi Nikethan, he said. There would also be an exchange of cultural teams between Kerala and West Bengal, Balan said.

The Onam celebrations will be inaugurated at Rappadi open-air auditorium at 5pm on September 10, followed by Cochin Guinness Mega show. The festival programmes will also be held at Malampuzha Garden and Bapuji Children’s Park at Sreekrishnapuram, he said.

The cultural programmes are organized jointly by cultural and tourism departments, Bharat Bhavan, South Zone Cultural Centre and Palakkad District Tourism Promotion Council. Chembai Memorial at Kottayi would be made a heritage village in memory of the great musician, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar.

The minister said that the government had given administrative sanction for Rs 2.6 crore to construct a heritage music village at Chembai Agraharam where the late Bhagavathar was born and lived.

Another Rs 2 crore would be spent for constructing Chembai Hall at Kottayi, the minister added.

At Kannampara, a memorial for late veteran musician M D Ramanathan would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1 crore, Balan said. At O V Vijayan Memorial at Thasrak, writers’ village would be constructed at a cost of Rs 7 crore and the cultural department has already sanctioned Rs 5 crore for it.

He said that the cultural department has sanctioned Rs 56 crore for the V T Bhattathiripad Cultural Centre near Palakkad Government Medical College at Yakkara in 5 acres.

A Model Residential School for sports, exclusively for tribal students, would be set up at the same complex, the minister said.