Senior journalist & former PTI Kochi Bureau Chief T N Vishwanathan passes away

Veteran journalist and former Bureau Chief of Press Trust of India PTI in Kochi, T N Viswanathan, died on Sunday afternoon, a family member said.

Veteran journalist and former Bureau Chief of Press Trust of India (PTI) in Kochi, T N Viswanathan, died on Sunday afternoon, a family member said. He was 91.

Vishwanathan was undergoing palliative care since he broke his hip in a fall last year, his younger son V Shankar said.

''For the last one-and-a-half months, he was not speaking to anyone and was being fed intravenously,'' Shankar added.

Vishwanathan is survived by his two sons -- V Neelakantan (Ramesh) and Shankar.

The cremation would be held on Monday at 12 pm in Tripunithura.

Those who have worked with Vishwanathan, remember him as a very energetic and dedicated journalist. The senior reporter started his career in journalism at 19 and joined PTI in the 1950s at Hyderabad.

He moved to Kochi in 1971 as a reporter and covered political and sports events in the port city for two decades before retiring from the agency in 1992.

Thereafter, he worked for Deccan Chronicle and also contributed articles to the Times of India, The Hindu and Rubber Asia.