The Hindu 18.11.2009
Plea to include Thrikkakara temple in new municipality
Special Correspondent
The temple inadvertently got included in the Kalamassery municipality.
KOCHI: A number of social activists and intellectuals residing in the Thrikkakara panchayat area have backed the demand to include the Thrikkakara Mahakshetram, currently part of the Kalamassery municipality, in the newly-formed municipality.
The poet Chemmanam Chacko, social activist C.R. Neelakantan and senior journalists V.P. Ramachandran and N.N. Satyavrathan are among those who have supported a petition before the Ombudsman for Local Self Government Institutions to include the temple in the soon-to-be formed Thrikkakara municipality. The Ombudsman is expected to hear an application to this effect, moved earlier by Paul Mecheril and others two months ago, at a sitting on Thursday.
Mr. Mecheril had in his application pointed out that the temple, linked to Vamana and the mythical Kerala king Mahabali, was a religious and cultural institution of Thrikkakara. In fact, he claimed, the name Thrikkakara had derived from the temple. However, the temple slipped out of the Thrikkakara panchayat and inadvertently got included in the Kalamassery municipality when it was formed a few years ago.
Mr. Mecheril pointed out that Thrikkakara was being made a municipality and that the State Cabinet had already approved the upgradation. “This is the apt time to correct an administrative blunder and return the temple to Thrikkakara,” he said.
The Ombudsman has asked the secretaries of Thrikkakara panchayat and Kalamassery municipality to present their views at the hearing on Thursday, to be held at the Ernakulam district panchayat hall at Kakkanad.
