Demand to take over land

Land attached by C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer

The family of freedom fighter and former Finance Minister in the erstwhile Thiru-Kochi government, P.S. Nataraja Pillai, and the Saiva Prakasa Sabha, founded by him, have demanded that the government take back the land under the possession of the Kerala Law Academy Law College at Peroorkada.

Pillai’s son N. Venkatesan and Sabha president K. Raveendran at a press conference here on Friday urged the government to promulgate an ordinance to cancel the assignment of 11.49 acres of land.

They have also demanded that the Harveypuram Bungalow be made a historical monument.

Mr. Raveendran said freedom fighter had inherited the land from his father P.M. Sundaran Pillai, the scholar known as Manonmaniam Sundaranar.

“As an act of vengeance for P.S. Nataraja Pillai’s participation in the freedom struggle, C.P. Ramaswami Iyer (the Dewan of erstwhile Travancore) ordered the attachment of the landed property,” he said.

Offer rejected

Though the Pattom Thanu Pillai Ministry of 1945-55, of which he was also part of, offered to return the land, Nataraja Pillai refused it. “While his family had requested the government to return the land in 1968, the land was provided on lease to the Kerala Law Academy Trust and later assigned to it,” Mr. Raveendran said.