Thousands of people from all parts of Kerala paid homage to veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran,whose body was brought here this morning from the state capital. Prime minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to reach Kochi here this afternoon and arrive here by 2 pm,to pay respect to 93-year-old Karunakaran,who passed away at Thiruvananthapuram on December 23. In view of the Prime minister's visit,security has been tightened and over 2000 police personnel drawn from neighbouring districts,have been deployed in and around the town. As the hearse carrying the body began its journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Thrissur yesterday,hundreds of people lined up on roads in various places to catch a glimpse of their leader. Police had a difficult time to control the crowd at various places. The body arrived at Kochi in the wee hours today. Defence Minister A K Antony,Minister of state for Railways E Ahamed,opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly Oommen Chandy,KPCC president Ramesh Chennitala and various other political leaders,including M P Veerendra Kumar,Hyder Ali Shihab Thangal and P K Kunhalikutty were among those who are at the Town Hall,where the body has been kept for the public to pay homage. A Long queue - extending to over a kilometre could be seen in front of the Town Hall. The cremation will take place at Karnakaran's house 'Muralimandiram' at Punkunnam in the district next to the tomb of his wife Kalyanikutty Amma.
