Thiruvananthapuram, 26 Sept (H.S.): The Kerala government has appointed heads to several cultural institutions, including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi and the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, three months after the United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power.

Writer Kalpetta Narayanan will head the Sahitya Akademi, while singer G Venugopal has been named chairperson of the Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. Actor Prem Kumar will lead the Kerala State Film Development Corporation.

The appointments follow the government’s decision a day earlier to name actor Ravindran chairperson of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Producer M Ranjith will head the film workers’ welfare fund board, and Dr Prakash Murthy will chair the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi.

The time taken to fill leadership posts at the academies and other institutions under the cultural affairs department had drawn criticism. The appointments bring new heads to bodies responsible for literature, performing arts, visual arts and cinema.

Narayanan is known as a poet, novelist and literary critic, and is regarded as close to the Congress. Poet K Satchidanandan stepped down as Sahitya Akademi president soon after the Assembly election results were announced.

Prem Kumar previously served as acting chairperson of the Chalachitra Academy during the Left Democratic Front government. He later left the post following differences with that government and subsequently aligned himself with the UDF. He has now been appointed to the Film Development Corporation, while Ravindran will head the Chalachitra Academy.

The decisions resolve appointments that had remained pending since the change of government. They also establish the leadership of the state’s main cultural institutions after a period in which the delay had become a point of public criticism.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman