Construction of houses for Scheduled Tribes in the Thellar village in Tiruvannamalai district is nearing completion.
The houses meant for the homeless from the Irula community are getting ready with all basic amenities such as water supply, individual toilet and cattleshed besides a community hall, milk society, streetlight and road.
The houses are being built under the tribal economic development scheme of the Department of Tribal Welfare Fund during 2016-2017.
The 100 houses measuring around 300 square feet each are constructed at a total cost of ₹ 2.65 crore. Whitewashing of the houses is under way.
A community hall costing ₹40 lakh has been built. Other infrastructure include an anganwadi building at a cost of ₹10 lakh, an overhead water tank (capacity 60,000 litres) at ₹20 lakh, children’s park at ₹20 lakh and a community milk society at ₹12 lakh.
The district administration has provided houses to 43 families with cattlesheds in 2018 in Meesanallur, which is close to the new construction site.
A link road from the main road would be laid from from Meesanallur tar road to the colony with funds from the Rural Development Department. The colony’s concrete road for the colony was built under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
District Collector K.S. Kandasamy said residents of Meesanallur in Vandavasi had been provided with new houses with poultry and cattle to improve their livelihood. The houses would be handed over identified community people soon. Their job is to maintain hygiene in the surroundings, he said.
Mr. Kandasamy assured that all the basic amenities would be provided to the community people and have asked the officials to compete the task before this fiscal.