Kerala government announces two model townships for survivors of Wayanad landslide
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Government on Wednesday announced the construction of two model townships for the survivors of the devastating Mundakkai - Chooralmala landslides that left hundreds dead and wiped out three villages in July last year.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan gave the details of the proposed townships at a press conference here. The planning and execution of the massive rehabilitation projects will be supervised by three committees comprising the chief minister, chief secretary, and district collector. The list of final beneficiaries will be announced in three weeks.
Each house in model township spread across two estates Elstone Estate and Nedumbala Estate , will be constructed on five cents and ten cents of land. The chief minister said the township in Nedumbala will have houses of 10 cents and in the future there will be houses that can be constructed on the top floor.
The proposed township will have all kinds of amenities like anganwadi, school, hospital, post office, market, parking spaces, playground etc.
“The massive landslides in 2024 wreaked havoc in Wayanad. Soon after the humongous disaster we tried to put in place a rehabilitation programme at the earliest. As part of the township project, comprehensive rehabilitation schemes will be implemented in a transparent manner. We will ensure timely implementation of the rehabilitation project,” the chief minister said.
The government will acquire 58.5 hectares of land in Elstone Estate and 48.96 hectares in Nedumbala. The five and ten cents houses were decided based on the price of the land.
The list of beneficiaries will be released by January 25. The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIFFB ) has prepared a detailed project document.
While the implementing agency is KIFFB subsidiary KIFCON, the construction contract will be given to Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society.
Earlier, as part of the project, a micro plan survey was carried out to assess the livelihood requirements of 4658 individuals in 1084 survivor families in the wards affected by landslides in Mundakkai, Chooralmala and Attamala in Meppadi panchayat. Of these, for 192 individuals’ agriculture was the livelihood option while animal husbandry for 79, micro industries for 1034 and 585 had other livelihood options.
The survey also identified 84 families with only women who required special assistance, 38 families with only widows, three families with just children, four families with only the elderly and 87 families with just one member.
The meeting of 38 sponsors who had expressed willingness to construct over 100 houses each also took place on Wednesday. The sponsors who attended the meeting included representatives of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, the Karnataka government, CPM youth wing DYFI, Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) and Sobha city. The government also decided to start a dedicated web portal for sponsors.
The sponsors will be given exclusive ID through which they can track the progress of the rehabilitation townships.
