The Hindu : Omana Pillai dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Omana Pillai dead

By Our Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA, MARCH 25. The veteran social activist, Omana Pillai alias `Theevandi Pillai', who worked relentlessly for realising the idea of coastal railway and made it an issue in the elections in the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency, died today. He was 85.

Mr. Omana Pillai has been ailing for the last few months. He breathed his last at 5 a.m. at `Kurishinkal House', his ancestral home, at Chettikad.

A lawyer by profession, Mr. Omana Pillai had contested five elections with `train' as his symbol. He was an independent candidate in most of the polls. In the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, he was the Janata Party candidate in Alappuzha. The Congress also supported him.

Though he could not succeed in the elections the idea of coastal railway became popular and various political parties and MPs from Alappuzha had to take up the issue seriously. His dream became a reality on November 20, 1992 when the coastal railway line was commissioned.

Educated in Mumbai Mr. Omana Pillai began his career as a lawyer there. He returned to Kerala and contested the 1965 Assembly election from Alappuzha. He raised the railway issue first time in that election. Despite defeat he continued to work for realising the idea. In 1979 the State Assembly passed a motion demanding construction of the coastal railway line. A team of political leaders including Mr. Omana Pillai met the then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, and pressurised the Union Government to construct the railway line.

Mr. Omana Pillai was unmarried. His father, Lonan Pillai, was a member of the Sree Moolam Praja Sabha. Gregory Sastri, brother of Lonan Pillai, was among the founders of Arya Samajam movement in Kerala.

Mr. Omana Pillai is survived by his brothers, Manikyam Pillai and Prakasham Pillai, and a sister, Kusum Amma.

Mr. Omana Pillai's body will be buried at the St. Thomas Church cemetery, Thumpoly, at 10 a.m. on March 26.

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