The Moolampilly evictees — and those in six other villages who were forced to surrender their land for rail-road links to the International Container Trans-shipment Terminal at Vallarpadam — watch the rain with a lot of trepidation.
It is that time of the year that multiplies their woes. Come monsoon, and there is water-logging in their makeshift shelters that are without basic facilities like power, water supply, and road connectivity promised by the government.
Together with the evictees of Moolampilly, who had been forced out of their homes on February, 6, 2008, a total of 316 families lost their dwelling places for the project — which has turned out to be a hugely loss-making enterprise.
A 45-day struggle by the evictees brought the government to its knees, and it announced a skeletal rehabilitation package, which was eventually expanded to cover the entire population displaced for the project, thanks to the intervention of the High Court.
“However, it has remained a chimera, with successive governments turning their back on these people,” lamented Francis Kalathunkal, general convenor of the coordination committee of displaced people.
“Employment guarantee for one eligible member of each of these families has not been fulfilled. Only around 38 families were able to construct houses on alternative lands — marshy and falling within the coastal regulatory zone — allotted to them on seven locations. Still fewer were provided the basic facilities promised,” he said.
“While employment guarantee was not honoured, we approached the Cochin Port Trust, which expressed inability to do anything in a PPP project. The Chief Secretary said the government was not able to fulfil its own order at that point of time,” he added. In 2011, then Chief Minister convened a meeting, in which he directed the District Collector to head a monitoring committee, also comprising PWD, KSEB, KWA officials, and representatives of the strife committee, to review the implementation of the package every month.
Delay an issue
“It provided some momentum to the rehabilitation package enforcement, but it has only met once after the present Collector assumed charge. Resultantly, procedural delays are holding up timely resolution of problems,” maintained Mr. Kalathunkal.
Their cry for a Joint Secretary-level officer as an independent authority to supervise the rehabilitation has not been met, but the evictees are pinning their hopes on the new government to address their case sympathetically.
“We are planning to meet the Revenue Minister on June 17 and are hopeful that justice will be done,” he said.
