KOTTAYAM: The tribal development office at Adimaly is not aware of the Union government sanctioning a girls' hostel at Pettimudy, a tribal hamlet in Edamalakudy panchayath in Idukki, and its shifting to Aralam in Kannur. Moreover, despite the fact that the administrative sanction came on November 17, 2015, only the construction of its pillars materialised, sources at the SC/ST department said.
As a testimony to the apparent lack of coordination, the SC/ST department at the Secretariat had not informed the Tribal Development Office at Adimaly of the shifting. "We received no government order or other communication," tribal development officer A. Rahim told DC. It came to light through a response from the department to the National Human Rights Commission on a complaint filed by a Mattancherry-based human rights activist, Govindan Nampoothiri on October 9, 2017.
Meanwhile, the sources said such communications from the Union government naturally goes to the SC/ST directorate, and the communication gap may be due to that. "Some works including the erection of the pillars are over," V. Saseendran, deputy director of the SC/ST department told DC.
