Palakkad  :

The ancestors of V R Krishna Iyer were ardent philanthropists and have their lineage rooted to the ‘agraharams’ in Palakkad. His maternal family in Shekharipuram had donated their house styled ‘Govinda’ to the ‘gramajana samooham’. The palatial house, a portion of which was rented out to meet the daily expense of the Lakshminarayana Swamy Temple in Shekharipuram– which now owns the property–  was gifted by Iyer’s uncle, said Latha Ramanan, a neighbour. She said that Iyer’s uncle S L Venkatachala had donated the house before he left for Mumbai. The three sons of Venkatachala  are no more, and one of his daughters is settled in Chennai. She said the grandchildren of Venkatachala had planned to construct a building in the compound of the house so that people could gather and recite vedic verses.

Iyer’s paternal family was from Vaidyanathapuram here. His nephew, Dr S V Ramachandran was a renowned surgeon, who stayed near Government Victoria College.

Jana Jagratha Samithi secretary Dr P S Panicker said Iyer was the president of the Janakeeya Prathirodha Samithi, which spearheaded hundreds of protests on varied  issues which affected the adivasis,  DPEP to cases relating to land encroachments,  and other issues affecting the underprivileged.

Dr Panicker reminisced how at the ‘pattaya mela’, by then LDF Government in Attappadi – in which then Chief Minister E K Nayanar participated– Justice Krishna Iyer had said the land distributed to the adivasis at the pattayamela was unfit for cultivation and they should be provided fertile land instead, causing much embarrassment to the hosts.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by A Satish / December 05th, 2014