Kerala: Kallan Pokkudan kin to sue outfit for Siddique award

Thiruvananthapuram: The family of the late environmentalist Kallan Pokkudan will move court against a pro-Congress organisation that instituted an award in his name and announced it to Kozhikode DCC president T. Siddique without their consent.

"Siraja Vellayil, one of the organisers of the Jawahar Institute of National Studies which instituted the award called me two weeks ago asking me to be a guest at the award ceremony. Then itself I had expressed my reservation," Anandan Paithalen, son of Pokkudan, told Deccan Chronicle.

"He did not call me afterwards. However, on August 28, I saw a newspaper report announcing Kallan Pokkudan Environment Award. We had constituted a trust in memory of our father namely Mangroves Tree Trust. We had also planned an international award. 

"The plan was to institute an award with an amount befitting to the contributions made by our father to environmental conservation.”

"The present financial position of the family is not stable for such an endeavour. Of the six children of Pokkudan, I am the only government employee," said Mr Paithalen who is a teacher.

"Moreover, the priority was on setting up the Mangrove school as our father was at the forefront of its conservation. However, well-wishers of Pokkudan had promised to help the endeavour.”

"The thing that hurt me most was the way the organisers dealt with the family. They did not think that consent of the family was needed for instituting an award in Pokkudan’s name.

"They would not have instituted an award in the name of a known politician without the consent of the family. They took the family of Pokkudan for granted because we are Dalits without much financial support or clout," he added.