The Kerala State Housing Board is actively planning to launch a special housing scheme for non-resident Keralites (NoRKs) employed abroad, State Housing Minister E. Chandrasekharan has said.
The government had also come out with a package to provide decent accommodation for the five-lakh odd homeless in the State, he said, inaugurating the State-level function at the Collectorate here to mark World Habitat Day that falls on the first Monday of October. The scheme took cues from the one lakh housing scheme (Laksham Veedu Padhathi) evolved by former Minister M.N. Govindan Nair, he said.
The government was now mulling over generating an employment scheme in tandem with the new housing project to see that individual house owners were ensured of decent livelihood means. However, it was imperative that the mission should be supplemented by voluntary agencies and financially affluent individuals to ensure its success, he said.
Lauding octogenarian philanthropist from the district K.N. Gopalakrishna Bhat, widely known as “Sairam Bhat,” who gifted 246 houses to the homeless by pooling funds from his farm revenue and personal income, Mr. Chandraskharan said the State was planning to honour the multi-faceted personality.
The State had also represented to the Centre to award him with civilian honours for voluntarily taking up series of welfare-oriented programmes, that included free weekly medical camps, disbursal of sewing machines for the poor, and supplying books free of cost to school students. All these programmes were funded solely from the revenue generated from his family property and personal income as priest and a traditional Ayurvedic expert.
The function held at the Collectorate conference hall here was addressed by N.A. Nellikkunnu, MLA, district panchayat president A.G.C. Basheer, Collector K. Jeevanbabu, State Housing Board Chairman P. Prasad, Nirmithi centre Director and Life Mission Chief Executive Officer Adheela Abdulla, and Housing Commissioner K.M. Satheesh.
