KOCHI: It is said that no one is indispensable, yet the residents of Vypeen Island feel the absence of C M Devassy, the former president of Vypeen block panchayat and NCP district committee. It has been a year since Devassy, who had been in the forefront for different struggles of islanders, bid adieu in his prime on January 28 last year.
Devassy was travelling with K S Radhakrishnan, former vice-chancellor, Sree Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, to take part in a function in Thodupuzha when he complained of uneasiness. Immediately, he was taken to the Thodupuzha Taluk Hospital.
As his condition deteriorated owing to heart ailments, he was moved to a private hospital where he breathed his last.
A leader of the masses, Devassy always had tremendous support of Vypeen locals. “It is because he always stood with the people. Even when he was not holding any office, every morning, about 30 to 50 locals would gather in front of his house raising various issues of the island.
People felt that Devasssy is a person who can be relied upon. Any islander who approached him was helped,” recalls journalist M R Ajayan, a close friend and neighbour of Devassy.
“It was Devassy who initiated various struggles of the islanders and all these agitations were for existence. The agitation for drinking water gained momentum under his leadership and the issue has now been solved to a great extent. There was a time when people shifted residence to the outskirts of city due to scarcity of water,” Ajayan said.
“A leader like Devassy is yet to emerge from Vypeen. When we see the problems of the island which have been neglected, we can feel the absence of Devassy,” he said.
Scriptwriter Ranji Panicker, another close friend and chairman of C M Devassy Charitable Welfare Foundation, said, “There had been many situations that prompted us to think of times when Devassy was alive. If Devassy had taken up an issue, he would stand by it till a solution was found. He never left a problem unsolved,” Panicker said.
“For me, Devassy is still alive in my mind. I remember him almost everyday,” said K S Radhakrishnan, former vice-chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, a native of Vypeen island and one of the close friends of Devassy.
A meeting to commemorate Devassy organised by C M Devassy Charitable Welfare Foundation will be held at BTH on Saturday. The award instituted by the foundation for the best social activist will be presented to K J Peter at the function.