To promote the rich cultural and literary fields and the socio-cultural ethos of the city, Finance Minister K.M. Mani announced a number of projects to promote in his budget speech in the Assembly on Monday.
The budget lays emphasis on the digitisation of records in the Archival Repositories and focusses on the establishment of heritage centres and structural and chemical conservation work on monuments.
Rs.1 crore for temple
As part of this, Rs.1 crore has been allocated to the Archaeological Department for the conservation and preservation of the walls and entrance structures of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
An ongoing digitisation project of the State Archives Department, the Mathilakom project will be completed. The digitisation programme includes transliteration and translation of scrolls of palm-leaf documents written in ancient scripts on the history of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. A sum of Rs.50 lakh has been allocated for this project.
A national museum of the history of freedom struggle will be established in the city. A sum of Rs.1 crore has been allotted for the establishment of the Freedom Memorial Museum in Vattiyurkavu, where the first State Congress conference, which spearheaded the freedom movement in Travancore, was held.
Dance museum
The Tagore Theatre would be renovated into a cultural centre with modern facilities, for which Rs.7.5 crore has been allocated this year.
To promote and highlight the literary and cultural traditions of the State, A ‘Vishwamalayala Mahotsavam' (global Malayalam festival) will be organised under the Kerala Sahitya Academy this year.
A sum of Rs.50 lakh has been sanctioned in the budget for the festival.
A dance museum will be established in Guru Gopinath Natanagramam in Vattiyurkavu, for which Rs.10 lakh has been allocated.
Jawahar Balabhavan
The P.N. Panicker Vigyan Vikas Kendra has received an annual grant of Rs.1 lakh. A sum of Rs.5 lakh each has been portioned out for the development initiatives of Jawahar Balabhavan in the city and the Bharat Bhavan cultural centre coming up under the Department of Culture.
A sum of Rs.10 lakh has been allocated to establish a convention centre in Santhigiri.
A sum of Rs.2 crore has been allocated for conducting awareness programmes on religious harmony and national integration in connection with the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda and Rabindrotsavam in remembrance of the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
