Subedha, one of the 29 beneficiaries, who had been provided title deeds of a site at Kondadi near Hiriyadka, said on Wednesday that the officers of the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) had called the beneficiaries to the land at Kondadi (on Wednesday) to tell them that sites would be given soon.
Speaking to presspersons here at a press conference organised by the Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF), Ms. Subedha, who is also the convener of Kondadi Girijana Colony Niveshadarara Sangha, said that the 2.61 acres of land in Survey No 229 at Kondadi had been “levelled by cutting it. With the result, there was one piece of land above and another piece of land below it.”
The problem now was that the upper piece of land was susceptible to landslips during monsoon unless a retention wall was built there. Besides, the land had been filled with stones during levelling, she said.
This would make construction of houses on the sites tough until proper soil was dumped there, she added.
“We went to Kondadi today. But we told the officers from ITDP that land levelling should be carried out in a proper manner. They should also provide basic amenities such as road, water and drainage facilities for the proposed 29 houses. They cannot give us the sites and wash their hands off,” she said.
Ravindranath Shanbhag, president of HRPF, said that the government had also given ₹ 3.5 lakh each to the 29 beneficiaries to construct their houses at Kondadi. But to use the upper piece of land, the construction of a 400-metre-long and 30-feet-high retention wall between the upper and lower pieces of land was a must to avoid landslips.
The construction of the retention wall would cost a lot. There was no need to cut the land.
“But it is not clear who got the idea of cutting the land and add to the already existing problem,” he said.
