Title deeds distributed

As many as 56 people, who have been residing in houses constructed under a government scheme on the outskirts of the city, were given title deeds here on Saturday.

At a ceremony in Shaktinagar, 45 families from the Rajiv Nagar Colony and 11 families from Alape near Padil were given title deeds. Each of them were allotted three cents of land by the Mangalore City Corporation.

However, at Rajiv Nagar, the figure represents a fraction of the more than 200 houses that have been built since the colony was set up for economically-backward persons nearly 15 years ago.

According to MCC officials, only those who paid back Rs. 25,000 given as low-interest loan by the government have been given the title deeds now.

Vijay Kumar, a resident, said many families had paid back their loans by 2010 and were yet to get their title deeds.

“It is arbitrary. Those who have built their houses in the past two years have got the title deeds, while those who had built it 15 years ago were still to get them…Many more have not paid back the loans as they had been given the promise of a loan waiver,” he said.

According to the MCC, out of 210 plots allotted in the colony, 58 applications had been forwarded to the tahsildhar’s office, while, 107 title deeds will be given soon. At Alape, 19 families were yet to be given title deeds.

The Rajiv Nagar Colony also houses a large number of people — most of them migrants — who have built houses on the empty plots there. Siddappa, who has set up a house 15 years ago after migrating from Bagalkot, had arrived at the function hoping he too would be lucky.

“We have ration cards, electricity and water connection, but we do not have title deeds. There are 50 families such as ours, and we have not got a clear response from the corporation,” he said.