Kerala State Rubber Co-operative Ltd. (Rubco) chairman and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader E. Narayanan died in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday morning. He was 77.
Narayanan, who was also the chairman of the State Co-operative Union, was on a visit to Kuala Lumpur to attend a conference organised by a federation of hospitals, Rubco Managing Director P.V. Haridasan said. Former president and current director board member of the Thalassery Cooperative Hospital, he had left for Malaysia on October 12 and was to return on October 20, Mr. Haridasan said.
The death of Narayanan, who had been chairman of the company in the cooperative sector since its inception in 1997, has come at a time when it is undergoing problems due to financial liabilities. He had said at a press meet in August that Rubco could pay off its dues if its production was enhanced. Hailing from Mannayad at Thalassery, Narayanan’s stint in the cooperative sector began over four decades ago when he was elected president of the Mannayad Multi-purpose Co-operative Society.
In the 1970s, he was elected president of the Thalassery Cooperative Bank and president of the Thalassery Dinesh Beedi Workers Industrial Co-operative Society. In 1980, Narayanan was elected chairman of the Thalassery municipality.
He won the Sadananda Puraskar, the best ‘Sahakari’ award in the State in 1980. At the time of his death, he was the chairman of the Kerala Co-operative Hospital Federation, an apex organisation of co-operative hospitals in the State. He was serving as vice-chairman of the Asia Pacific Health Co-operative Organisation and was also the governing council member of the National Co-operative Union. A widower, Narayanan is survived by three children. A son had died earlier. His body is expected to reach here on Thursday. — Special Correspondent
