Alappuzha: It looks like red tapism has hit the work on a museum in memory of Shankar, the country’s best known and most revered political cartoonist, at his birthplace near Krishnapuram in Kayamkulam here. It has been reported that the Revenue Department is delaying sanction for the project.
The Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, which is behind the initiative with an estimate of Rs 3. 5 cr and an area of over 15,000 sq ft, has not yet been given sanction for the work even though months have gone by since they applied for permission.
Akademi chairman K.A. Francis told DC that they had no idea when the museum could be opened. “Earlier, the Akademi had decided on the official inauguration in September. But it was postponed all because of the apathy of the Revenue Department.
About 80 per cent of the work on the museum has been completed. The museum has been planned on the lines of the International Dolls Museum in Delhi set up by Shankar himself. We are still trying to convince the Revenue Department”, he said.
Meanwhile, an official in the district Revenue Department said they were preparing a report in this regard. The department had to sort out several technical problems as the said land was notified as revenue ‘purampoku’. However, the department was working on it, he said.
