Thirty-seven gypsy families of Park Town in Valliyoor, who lived in 5-foot-tall tents, received their dream houses, each constructed on an outlay of Rs. 3 lakh, on Monday.
In a simple function held on Monday, Collector M. Karunakaran inaugurated the houses and handed over the keys to the proud owners.
When the large families of these gypsies lived in small tents pitched in a secluded place near Valliyoor, they had to struggle a lot to protect their meagre savings, household articles and the children, especially girls, from drunkards and poisonous reptiles during nights. After the then Collector, M. Jayaraman, gave free house sites to 37 Narikorava families in an area adjacent to the rapidly developing Park Town of Valliyoor, the nomads moved to that area along with their tents and their ordeals continued.
Though successive Collectors provided them drinking water, streetlights, ration cards, community hall and sanitary facilities, absence of an all-weather roof over their heads continued to haunt the gypsy families, each having a minimum of four children, during hot summer and active monsoon.
“While we could manage the summers to some extent, we had to struggle a lot during the monsoon, especially during nights. Since our tents had no electric light, the floodwater, snakes, scorpions etc., multiplied our woes,” says Pandi Durai and Ganesan.
After his predecessors could not find funds for the construction of permanent houses to the gypsies, Mr. Karunakaran’s personal efforts ensured the release of funds to the tune of Rs. 1.11 crore from the Rs. 500-crore Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project Neighbourhood Development Programme for the construction of houses for the gypsy families.
Now, each house, having the plinth area of 327 square feet, has been constructed with a sit-out, living room, bedroom, kitchen, toilet, rainwater harvesting structure. While steel doors have been fitted in most of the houses, those who could afford have gone for teak wood doors. “I had saved Rs. 40,000 by selling the artificial ornaments and have now used my savings for fitting the teak door in my house,” says Pandi Durai.
They have been built at the cost of Rs. 1.11 crore
