Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday re-named Gandhi Nagar 4th Main Road in Adyar as B. Ramachandra Adithanar Road after former managing editor of Tamil eveninger Malai Murasu . She also unveiled the name board in the presence of his family members, including his son and the newspaper’s Managing Director R. Kannan Adityan.
She paid floral tributes to the portrait of Adithanar, who as editor of Malai Murasu , had contributed immensely to the development of the State. He was a resident of the road for many years. Minister for Municipal Administration and Law S.P. Velumani, Chief Secretary K. Gnanadesikan, Secretary Municipal Administration K. Phanindra Reddy, Chennai Corporation Commissioner Vikram Kapur, Mayor Saidai Duraisamy and other Ministers attended.
Later speaking to The Hindu. Mr. Kannan said that the fact that the Chief Minister herself came in person to unveil the name board gave the family immense happiness.
“We had made the proposal to her to name this road after my father as he had lived here. Even if she had just re-named the road we would have been happy… but this gesture of coming over personally made us doubly happy,” he said.
Malai Murasu was started in 1962 and Mr. Adithanar was managing editor till 2013 when he passed away. Apart from the newspaper, he ran two magazines, Devi , a weekly and Pennmani , a monthly.
He was also director of the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank for many years and responsible for retrieving the bank that would have been otherwise taken over by non-Tamilians.
