Veteran freedom fighter Bantakallu Lakshminarayana Sharma no more

Veteran freedom fighter Bantakallu Lakshminarayana Sharma no more

Mangalore Today News Network

Kaup, Oct 22, 2015: Veteran freedom fighter, senior Gandhian, farmer and retired teacher Bantakallu K Lakshminarayana Sharma passed away at his residence here on October 21 following a brief illness. He was 97. Sharma is survived by  his three sons and five daughters.

Sharma had plunged into the freedom struggle by participating in the  movement launched by Mahatma Gandhiji in Katapady in 1934. He had even underwent  one month’s imprisonment in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. Subsequently his active involvement in the freedom struggle  led to his arrests  several times.

 Following independence,  Sharma had returned to Katapady where he worked as a Hindi teacher at the Hindu Junior College at Shirva for 26 years. He had even actively participated in the Bhoodan movement of Vinoba Bhave and had donated one acre out of the 10 acre granted to him by the government.

Sharma was such a noble personality that he used to distribute his pension among the poor. Upon retirement he  engaged in cultivation of Shankerpura jasmine.

 His last rites were performed with full state honours in the presence of Udupi District in-charge Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake and a host of dignitaries.