Kerala Chief Minster Pinarayi Vijayan presented the Ezhuthacha Award for the year 2019 to writer Ananh (P.Sachidanandan) at Thiruvananthapuram. The award carries a purse of ₹5 lakh. The author has penned novels such as Aalkootam, Maranacertificate and Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu. The Ezhuthachan Puraskaram is the highest literary honor that is given by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Government of Kerala. The award is named after Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, the father of the Malayalam language and consists of a cash prize of ₹5,00,000 and a citation. The prize money was enhanced by ₹50,000 in 2011. The award was instituted in 1993 and Sooranad Kunjan Pillai was its first recipient.
