Residents living at Curzon Valley, in the state-run TANTEA’s housing colony near Kotagiri have appealed to the estate management, the local panchayat and the district administration for improvement in housing facilities and road access.
According to members of the community of 30 families, all Sri Lankan repatriates, the lack of basic facilities in the estate’s housing was making life extremely difficult for the residents.
“We have been living here for more than 40 years, but we still do not have basic facilities such as roads,” said Seetha Lakshmi, a resident of the estate. The members of the community have been working as estate laborers, earning a daily wage from harvesting tea leaves.
Ms. Lakshmi said that due to a lack of roads, they had to walk a distance of around 2-3 kilometers to reach the nearest motorable road, and to buy provisions for their homes. “As a result, most of the children of the residents here are staying in hostels or with relatives in order to get education,” said Yogeshwari, another resident.
Due to lack of maintenance of the houses at the estate, many residents also complain of leaky roofs and fear that heavy spells of rain in the next monsoon could lead to more damage to their houses.
They have appealed to the state-run TANTEA management, as well as the district administration to help with repairing their homes and to also lay roads to the settlement. “Even if people are unwell and need to be rushed to hospital, they have to either walk or be carried for around two kilometers before an ambulance can reach them,” said another resident.
Local panchayat officials said that they had laid roads for a number of settlements in Denad panchayat, where the TANTEA housing is located. They added that roads have also been laid for adivasi communities and that a road to the TANTEA settlement has been proposed to the district administration.
