Ratnamma, 77, is glad to get the keys to her new house finally.
Seventy-two beneficiaries were given the keys to flats built for the homeless in Karimadom Colony under a National Urban Livelihood Mission scheme recently.
Ratnamma came to live at Karimadom after her marriage at the age of 20. The flat she lived in for 35-odd years was so dilapidated that she had to cover her head with cloth to protect herself from waste water from the bathroom on the floor above. She moved to a rented accommodation nearby.
After the new scheme was drawn up, the flats were demolished. “We were given Rs.2,000 a month in compensation for the rent we paid elsewhere,” she said.
Ratnamma will be alone in her new house. Her husband is no more, and her sons and daughters live with their own families. Though life is tough with a meagre pension of Rs.800, the mention of a house of her own brings a smile to her face.
Syed Ali, a daily wage labourer in Chala, and his wife too are happy at the thought of shifting to their new house, especially as it is an improvement on their earlier one, which had only one room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. “There was no privacy. If we had a visitor, we would send them out before we could change our clothes,” his wife says. Now, the family of five will move into a flat with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. “The bathroom is tiled,” she says.
Syed Ali says they could have moved in sooner had the elections and change of government not delayed things by a few months. “The work was over in quick time,” he says. But it will be another few days before the families can move in as the water, electricity, and drainage connections are pending.
Mayor V.K. Prasanth said the old utility connections of the families could not be transferred, and hence new connections were required. The procedural delay would be over soon, he promised them. And for these 72 families, that day cannot come soon enough.
