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Kerala today celebrated the 66th day of State formation. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated ‘The Malayalam University’ named after Thunchath Ezhuthachan, considered to be the father of Malayalam language, at Tirur in Malappuram district in the presence of a large number of people.
Speaking on the occasion, Chandy said the government would move ahead with the intention of making Malayalam language compulsory in all schools in the State.
The government will also strive to get a classical language status for Malayalam, he said. The varsity’s logo, designed by artist Namboothiri, was released at by Chandy.
Senior IAS officer and a noted poet K. Jayakumar, who retired as Chief Secretary on Thursday, is the first Vice-Chancellor of the university, which in initial stage would offer 15 programmes covering the socio-cultural history of Kerala.
Jayakumar said the institution would offer priority to research courses after post-graduation.
The university will have five chairs in the names of Raja Ravi Varma, Swathi Thirunal, C.V. Raman Pillai, Kumaran Asan and Herman Gundert.
Prominent writers M.T. Vasudevan Nair and T. Padmanabhan, winners of Ezhuthachan Award, were felicitated at the function.
The Right to Service Act came into force in the State today. The Act is aimed at ensuring that citizens get government services within a fixed time. In the first phase, 13 services offered by various departments and nine offered by police have been brought under the ambit of the Act.
A major welfare measure launched today is the distribution of free generic drugs to patients of all government medical colleges and major general hospitals at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode.
As a first step, 825 generic medicines will be given free to patients at a time when the medicine prices are skyrocketing. The scheme will be extended to all hospitals stage by stage.
‘Farmer’s protection – Food richness’, a new programme to promote agriculture in the State with a view to making the State self-sufficient in food articles was also launched today.
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