As many as 25 nomadic families of the Malampandaram tribe in the Moozhiyar forests will be settled at a self-contained settlement colony planned at Manjathodu, near Laha, District Collector S. Harikishore has said.
The Collector was interacting with a group of tribal families assembled at the KSEB Recreation Hall, Moozhiyar, during his day-long visit to the tribal hamlets of Moozhiyar, Sayippinkuzhy, and Chippankuzhy as part of ‘A day in the tribal hamlet’ scheme of the district administration on Thursday.
He said the project for rehabilitation of the Malampandaram families had been cleared by the administration as per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. The Tribal Development Officer had prepared a list of families to be rehabilitated at Manjathodu.
The Collector said 10 cents of land would be allotted to each family and the government would construct houses for them. Official sources said the total number of nomadic Malampandaram families in the forests of Moozhiyar, Gavi, Sayippinkuzhy, Anathodu, Gurunathanmannu, Nalpathekkar, and so on was around 40. The Collector said the district administration and the Tribal Welfare Department would identify the land required for rehabilitating the remaining nomadic families too, he said.
The tribal folk had apprised the Collector of their problems, who directed the Tribal Welfare Officer to redress their grievances in a time-bound manner.
Schooling of two
During his visit to a tribal settlement at Veluthodu in Moozhiyar, Mr. Harikishore directed the authorities to make arrangements for the schooling of two tribal children — Rajesh, 9, and Manju, 6, — who did not know anything about schools.
He sanctioned temporary ration cards to a few tribal families on the occasion.
