Tsunami survivor gets promised land at last, but.

Chennai: It is yet another sad story of a slip between the cup and the lip. Tsunami survivor V. Shanmugavel from Kanathur Reddikuppam, a fishing hamlet some 30 km south of Chennai, finally got an order signed by the Kancheepuram district collector on Monday allotting him 2.5 cents of land as rehabilitation relief promised by chief minister J. Jayalalithaa soon after the tsunami disaster in 2004.

Having knocked on every possible bureaucratic door in the past 12 years, the 49-year-old fisherman-coolie felt elated receiving the collector’s order with a few media cameras recording the benevolence for posterity. But his happiness was short-lived as the residents of the Mullipakkam village (Tiruporur taluk), where the little piece of land is located, shooed them saying he was an unwelcome outsider. It also appeared that the village head wanted that land for the expansion of the adjacent community hall.

“The village head told me I would not be able to live there in peace as everyone was against it. He said I could settle for another piece of land far away from the village”, said Shanmugavel sounding very bitter. “I intend approaching collector amma once again for help”.

Tiruporur tahsildar Ravikumar, who had accompanied Shanmugavel to the village, said he would ensure that the tsunami survivor got the same piece of land sanctioned by the collector.

He refused to comment on the village head’s threat. In any case, the tahsildar’s promise could still mean further delay in Shanmugavel getting the land. “And even after that, it would require lot of toil and funds to make that land usable”, he rued.

It’s been a long journey of miserable struggle for existence for the man. While he continued to live on the sea shore of Kanathur Reddikuppam on ECR, where he worked as coolie on fishing boats till the tsunami buried him in the sand and relief workers initially listed him among the dead, his wife and four children lived in Erode. They had even attempted suicide some years ago unable to bear the pangs of poverty.

“Some philanthropists helped my children to pursue studies. Kancheepuram collector amma (R. Gajalakshmi) is a very kind lady. She gave me money to pay my daughter’s college fees and even for my house rent. And now she has given me land patta. I am sure she will find a way to convince those villagers to let me live peacefully among them”, said Shanmugavel.