318 houses for the urban poor

Project to come up at Kalladimukham

March 01, 2012 11:26 am | Updated 11:26 am IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

Urban Affairs Minister P.K. Kunhalikutty on Wednesday inaugurated the Kalladimukham slum improvement project of the City Corporation, being implemented under the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme.

Mayor K. Chandrika presided over the function. V. Sivankutty, MLA, was the chief guest. Deputy Mayor G. Happykumar; Corporation standing committee chairpersons Shajida Nasser, Palayam Rajan, V.S. Padmakumar, S. Pushpalatha, Vanaja Rajendrababu and P. Shyamkumar; United Democratic Front leader in the council Johnson Joseph; and BJP leader Ashok Kumar were present.

In two phases

As many as 318 housing units would be constructed under the Rs.10.5-crore project, in two phases. The project will be implemented by COSTFORD.

Of the total housing units, 105 are for families belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories, and 213 units for general category families.

The project coming up in around nine acres in Kalladimukham colony also includes construction of a community hall, study centre, library, anganwadi, television kiosk, roads, storm-water drainage, biogas plant, health club, streetlights, drinking water supply and so on.

The first phase of the project, that includes construction of 105 houses, is expected to be completed in a year.

Although a section of colony residents had initially protested against the inclusion of beneficiaries from general category in the project, the differences had been sorted out recently with the intervention of City Mayor K. Chandrika.

‘Issues resolved'

The agitators had demanded that the benefits of the project should be provided only to deserving families from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the land for the housing project had been bought using the Special Component Plan (SCP) fund allotted for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes development projects.

“The agitators were under the wrong impression that the Corporation had bought the land Kalladimukham using SCP funds alone. But the Corporation had, in fact, bought the land using both SCP and general fund. So beneficiaries from both categories can avail of the benefits of the project. The Mayor had recently convened a meeting to convince this to the agitators following which the issue was resolved,” said Corporation works standing committee chairman V.S. Padmakumar.

He added that the steps for preparing the beneficiary list for the project would begin soon.

Families from slum areas in 15 wards adjoining Kalladimukham will be rehabilitated with the project.

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