The centuries-old agraharams, clusters of quaint homesteads built in a row, that represented values of community living and shared space, are to get a new lease of life with the State planning to take up restoration work.
The intervention comes at a time when the traditional settlements of the ethnic Brahmin community are gradually vanishing from the Kerala landscape.
The government had long ago declared agraharams as heritage sites, and banned major architectural changes to the homesteads that dot the streets at Karamana, Valiyasala and Fort in the capital and Kalpathi in Palakkad district.
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Now, the Kerala State Welfare Corporation for Forward Communities (Samunnathi) has come forward to undertake repairs and restoration of 200 residential units in the agraharams of Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad. Repair and restoration of 200 units belonging to those having annual income less than Rs.2 lakh will be taken up under the scheme.
Priority will be given to households headed by single women, units with disabled people, children living without protection and transgenders.
Occupationally vulnerable groups such as unskilled workers and casual domestic workers will also get weightage in the selection process.
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The total cost of repair and restoration is pegged at Rs.4 crore with Rs. 2 lakh for each unit. “The project is to be taken up during the financial year 2016-17 with the assistance of the government,” said Samunnathi chairman B. Rajasekharan.
Selection panel
A selection committee with representatives from the community and a monitoring committee with experts have been set up. Fifty per cent of the funds will be provided initially, and the remaining in two instalments.
The Kerala Coastal Area Development Corporation will be the nodal agency for executing the work under the scheme.