When the entire nation is celebrating the 66th Republic Day with pomp and gaiety on Monday, over 5,000 Kani tribals in 47 settlements in Kanykumari district are crying for basic amenities, according to S.R. Sekar, district president, Tamil Nadu Tribals’ Association (TNTA).
Mr Sekar, also president of Kadayal Town Panchayat under whose control 17 Kani settlements with over 200 families fall, said here on Sunday that the tribal people were living without basic amenities such as protected drinking water, roads, health care facilities and street lights.
Vellerukkumalai and Paruthimalai tribal settlements were part of Kadayal Town Panchayat. In spite of this, a majority of the funds from the Western Ghats Development Schemes were diverted to other urban and rural local bodies, said Mr Sekar.
The tribal people were forced to drink water from pits dug up on the banks of Chitrar I dam water spread area. A survey was carried out by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board a few years ago to provide protected drinking water to them, but nothing had happened so far, he lamented.
The people had to trek three to four kilometres on a kutcha road to reach Kani settlements. Kadayal panchayat managed to lay a cement road for a short distance, but the rest of the entire stretch was in a very bad shape.
Kani tribals used to take pregnant women and patients in “thulis” to hospitals – either in Vattaparai or Arukani PHC, located some 14 km away. These settlements got power supply due to the efforts of former CPI (M) MP A.V. Bellarmin.
The tribal communities in 14 other States were given valid patta for the land they were tilling and residences inside the forests under the Forest Dwellers Rights Act, 2006, he noted.
But not even a tribal was provided with a house under the Indira Awaz Yojana, Green Houses and Row Houses Schemes here as the officials said their settlements were in town panchayat area, he added.
