Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will kick off the yearlong diamond jubilee celebrations at Santhigiri Ashram on Wednesday.
The jubilee focuses on free food programme to more centres of the ashram, housing, aid for tribal people under K.R Narayanan endowment fund, community marriage and joint efforts with the government for post-flood reconstruction. Also planned is a self-help finance programme in all districts with the cooperation of financial institutions.
Outstanding persons in different sectors will be honoured with Pranava Padma prize on March 25. O V Vijayan prize will be awarded to outstanding authors in different languages
A weekly programme for children, “Through Guru’s path”, will be held at all ashram branches. Efforts are to convert the ancestral home of the Gu-ru at Chandiroor in Alap-puzha into a national pilgrimage centre. Ashram centres will open in Malaysia, Japan, China, Russia, Nepal, Oman and Bulgaria. Santhigiri Ashram in Sri Lanka and extension of health care activities to Central Asian and Gulf countries have been planned.
250 people will get special skill development under Deen Dayal Upadh-yaya programme on a Central outlay of Rs 3.06L.
Santhigiri Vidya Bhavan will organize Santhigiri fest, quiz and chess tournament with the help of CBSE schools in the state, besides a State-level kho kho tournament.
Tourism circuit programmes with a Central of Rs 68 L include functions in New Delhi, Guwahati, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Mysore, Pondicherry, Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Gujarat, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kanyakumari.
Santhigiri will popularize Indian systems of medicine across the globe. Karuna fresh water programme will be developed as a model for other states. On the anvil are biodiversity park, dairy for conventional cow breeds, skill development centre, Yoga institute, Santhigiri Global Ayush village and integrated multi-system hospital complex.
Seminars, talk series, spiritual conclaves, medical camps, exhibitions, inter-religious meetings, youth rallies, art, culture and women’s empowerment meetings will highlight 60 years of the ashram, founded by Karunakara Guru on August 30, 1957 at Varkala. Sufi saint Khuraishi Fakir, who inspired Karunakara Guru, inaugurated the ashram at Pothencode.
