Dr. KJ Yesudas

FROM THE NEWSDESK

CPI(M)-led LDF government has roped in eminent Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas as tge brand ambassador of it's ambitious 'Haritha Keralam '(Green Kerala)project, a massive initiated envisaged for a garbage free and clean state.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday informed the state Assembly that the veteran singer had given his consent to be associated with the project.
"The government will take the initiative to clean all public water sources in the state.Ponds and streamlets will be cleaned in the first phase,while rivers,lakes and other water bodies in the second phase,"he said."Yesudas has given consent to be the ambassador of the government's HarithaKeralam project,"Vijayan said in his reply to a submission raisedby Muhammed Muhsin(CPI) on the degradation of the Bhrathapuzha, a river which occupies a significant position in the cultural history of the state.
Quoting recent findings of the state pollution Contorl Board, he said the presence of coliform bacteria had increased manifold in Bharathapuzha and sewage and waste dumped by hotels locatedonit's banks wasthe cause for it's present pathetic state.One of the most ambitious initiativesofthe LDF government,Haritha Keralam project focuses on a number of issues, including garbage and renovation and cleaning of public water soures.
Popular playback singer Dr KJ Yesudashasbecome one of the brand ambassadors of "Haritha Keralam" project in Kerala.The news was announced by State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan via his official Facebook page after meeting the singer at Cliff House in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday,October 2.
"The legendary singer Dr KJ Yesudas has agreed to become one of the brand ambassadors of Haritha Keralam project. He exprssed his willingness to be part of the project during a meeting that took palce on Sunday at the Cliff House.We talked on
the major highlights of the project that include waste disposal, environment protection and organic farming.He said it as an'apt programme to create a better Kerala for the future generation [translated from malayalam]," Pinarayi postedon the social media.
"When wediscussed on cleaning the ponds near temples aspart of the programme, he poitedout to make fountains so that there would be movement in the standing water which helps to eradiate mosquitoes.The cleaning of rivers and other water bodies will be done with the help of school and college students,"the Kerala CM concludedthe post.
Seems like the Kerala government is on a mission to promote the state's major programmes for the welfare of the people by making celebrities as brand ambassadors. A few days ago, the CM had introduced superstar Mohanlal as the goodwill ambassador of Mrithasanjeevani programme, which is the organ donation programme in the state.

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian Carnatic musician and film playback singer. Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional and cinematic songs. He has recorded more than 40,000 songs in a number of Indian languages as well as Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning more than five decades. He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri. He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s. Yesudas is fondly called Gana Gandharvan (The Celestial Singer). He is also known as a Cultural Icon of Malayalam language - as well as of its ethnic group spread across the world - due largely to the fact that his songs have been profoundly ingrained into the minds of Malayalam speaking people for five decades.

Yesudas has won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times, 5 Filmfare Awards and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 43 times, which consists of awards by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1975 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts. In 2011 Yesudas was honoured with the CNN-IBN outstanding achievement award having recorded over 20,000 songs in a five-decade career. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai.

The first song sung by Yesudas is Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham (music: M B Sreenivasan) on 14 November 1961, which he usually sings on all the special occasions in front of the audience. But the first film song was 'Attention Penne Attention', which he sang with Santha P. Nair, a veteran singer of that time. Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal (1962) and Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies in the early 1960s.

Yesudas has recorded over 40,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002) and seven National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

MISSION AMBASSADOR

FROM THE NEWSDESK

Dr. KJ YESUDAS