A consortium of Malayalee Associations in the State has been formed with the mutual consent of various associations to mainly serve the Malayalee-speaking people hailing from Kerala and living in Andhra Pradesh.
A meeting of representatives of 14 associations from Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Guntur, Ongole, Tirupati, and Nellore was held at Vijayawada in September and the new body was christened — Andhra Pradesh Consortium of Malayalee Associations (ACMA), Sam Cherian and S.G. Vijay Kumar, president and chief coordinator respectively of the ACMA, told a press conference here on Friday.
They said that the ACMA decided to set up information centres at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Nellore for the benefit of Ayyappa devotees visiting Sabarimala.
In Visakhapatnam, devotees requiring information on Sabarimala could contact Mr. Vijay Kumar (98491 20109) or N.M. Pillai (9393104519) or C.S. Nair (92972 08394).
The helpline numbers for Vijayawada and Nellore would be announced soon.
After bifurcation, there were about 1.5 lakh Malayalees in Andhra Pradesh and a majority of them was in Visakhapatnam.
The ACMA would promote and coordinate social, cultural, charitable, and educational activities at various levels.
Ad hoc panel
An ad hoc committee of the ACMA was elected with the following persons as office-bearers: President — Sam Cherian Karuvely (Visakhapatnam), vice-president — P. Venugopalan (Guntur), secretary — T. Yohannan Daniel (Vijayawada), joint secretary — P. Prakash Babu (Ongole), treasurer — K.V. Sebastian (Guntur), and chief coordinator — S.G. Vijay Kumar.
