With the fourth anniversary of the forceful eviction of inhabitants of Moolamppilly for the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal evoking many a painful memory hardly a month away, the evictees are far from getting a fair deal.
The sight that welcomed the fact finding team led by social activist K. Aravindakshan at a rehabilitation plot at Thuthiyoor in Vazhakala village on Monday stood testimony of the neglect meted out to the evictees.
Occupying good part of the more than four acres identified for the rehabilitation of 103 evicted families were the rubble and debris resulting from the renovation of the Ernakulam North railway overbridge. “Not only does the promise made by the Chief Minister in June to provide basic facilities including power, road, and water at rehabilitation plots in a time bound manner remain on paper, but the very conversion of the rehabilitation site in to a dumping yard is an affront to the evictees,” Francis Kalathungal, general convener of the Coordination Committee of people displaced by development projects, told The Hindu .
The evicted families are now pinning their hopes to a decision taken by the cabinet meeting in December to allocate Rs. 4.5 crore to ready basic facilities in all the rehabilitation sites at Mulavukad, Moolamppilly, Kothad, Cheranalloor, and Thuthiyoor. But for any work to be launched at Thuthiyoor, the concrete waste needs to be removed from there, Mr. Kalathungal said.
Mr. Aravindakshan said that girders and pillars in their whole remain dumped in the site in addition to concrete waste from piling.
The fact finding team, he said, will submit a report within a week and it will call for immediate removal of the debris from the rehabilitation site.
