Homeless seek land from flop' Smrithi Vanam area

ALAPPUZHA: Even though many people are homeless in Purakad, hundreds of acres of land acquired for the flop Gandhi Smrithi Vanam project is lying unused in the panchayat. The homeless are now demanding the district administration to provide them land from Smrithi Vanam project. The project was meant to be implemented over 640 acres of land identified by the government 22 years ago.

The proposed land was included in historically acclaimed places like temple of Karumadikuttan (Buddha statue), Kumarakodi at Pallana,  the final resting place of great poet Kumaranasan and Kunjan Nambiar memorial. However, the government failed to acquire land for the project. Out of 660 acres of land, only 335 acres was cleared. Those 335 acres remain unutilised while about 90 families of the panchayat are homeless due to sea erosion.

With the Kerala State Forest Development Corporation (KSFDC), the implementing agency, saying that the project is no longer with them, the district administration has to take a proactive step to clear the muddle in the process of allocating the land to poor fishermen. Saraswathy, 60, said she was ready to accept the land if she was allotted the land in Smrithi Vanam project area. “I have no land because all our assets were swept away by sea. We are living in a relief camp at Panchayat office for two years,” she rued.

“We are living by paying Rs 3,000 as house rent every month since we lost the house,” weeps Rohini, 51, another homeless woman in Purakad panchayat. “Our husbands have no job. The availability of fish is substantially down. We make our ends meet with the meagre income from occasional jobs under NREGA,” she said.  It was in 1984 Gandhi Smirthi Vanam project was fashioned by the state government with the support of the union government to sustain biodiversity.

The foundation stone was laid at Purakadu on October 2, 1984.However, with the half portion of land acquisition works were completed, a section of land owners refused to submit their land for project and subsequently approached court forcing the authorities to abandon it in half way. Meanwhile, Bindu Shaji member of 18th ward of the panchayath says they had submitted several complaints in this regard to district collector over the years.

Panchayat is still running three camps in which at least 90 family are accommodated. Many have been forced to rent house due to inadequate facilities at the camp and insecurity of their young children. Two years ago a meeting with then collector N Padmakumar had decided to give land for at least 22 homeless. But the decision had never been implemented due to the technical reasons’, she says, adding that if the district administration takes a sincere step, these people can easily be rehabilitated at Smrithi Vanam project area.