Kunchan Nambiar memorial staff, teachers waiting for their salaries

A file picture of Ottan Thullal programme at the Senate Hall in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: S. Mahinsha.

The failure to get the Rs.20 lakh grant allotted in the last Budget of the State government for the running of Kunchan Nambiar Memorial and the Thullal Gurukulam under it at Killikurissi mangalam near Ottapalam has resulted in staff and teachers of these institutions not getting their salary for the last eight months.

There is also no governing body now for the Memorial as the Governing body appointed by the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had resigned after the new United Democratic Front (UDF) government came to power in June last year.

So both the institutions are now headless and there is no one to take care of them. These institutions were created as a memorial for the great satirist poet of Malayalam Kunchan Nambiar.

His ancestral house at Killikurissi mangalm in Lakkidi near Ottapalam was converted as a memorial in 1976.

The memorial is giving training in Thullal, Mohiniyattam, Carnatic music and Mridangam, said Chandra Mohan, one of the staff in the memorial.

In Thullal art three branches – Ottan, Seethankan and Parayan are taught here.

There are eight teachers and three non-teaching staff working in the memorial who are put to great hardship due to the non-payment of their salary since June last year, Mr. Chandra Mohan said.