Gandhi peace award for Kila ex-director Balan

Thrissur: Prof P P Balan, former director of Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), has been selected for the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi international award for reconciliation and peace.
The award was instituted jointly by the Gandhi Development Trust (South Africa), M K Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence (Memphis, USA) and Mahatma Gandhi Foundation (India).The award is given since 2003, which was 100th year of the launch of “Indian Opinion” — the first newspaper started by Mahatma Gandhi.
The past winners of the award include Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kenneth Kaunda, Aung San Suu Kyi, Dalai Lama and Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy.
Prof Balan, who was the director of KILA for 11 years, is a senior consultant in the Union ministry of panchayat raj. He was also the director of the centre for research in rural and industrial development. “He has been actively involved for the last 25 years in developing Indian villages, and the villages in Bhutan and Sri Lanka,’’ said a statement from the Gandhi Development Trust.
The award will be symbolically presented to him at a webinar organised by the trust on Thursday.