KASARGOD: A textile shop owner and his family at Palakunnu in Udma panchayat transferred one acre of land worth around Rs 75 lakh to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund, said Collector Sajith Babu Damodaran.
The documents of the plot — owned by P A Raveendran,53, wife Usha K, 47, and sons Akhil P R, 27, and Akash P R, 22, — were handed over to the Collector on Thursday. “People have lost everything. It is our contribution to rebuild Kerala,” said Raveendran, who runs Palakkunnu Textiles and Readymades and also dabbles in real estate.
The Collector said the land was surrendered under the Kerala Land Relinquishment Act, 1958, and so there would be no cost on the donors. Raveendran and his son Akhil handed over the title deed, sketch of the plot and tax receipt to the Collector. The land can be monetised in future or it could be used for rehabilitation of flood-hit people.
For the past one week, several NGOs bought clothes from his shop to be sent to relief camps across the state, Raveendran said. “I have also sent clothes with my friends who are working as volunteers in relief camps,” he said.
That was when he proposed to his family to hand over the plot to the CMDRF. “When I proposed this in the family on Thursday morning, everyone agreed and we took the documents and went to meet the Collector,” he said.
He bought the land, near Udayamangalam templethree years ago. “We had some plans for the property, but then this disaster struck,” he said. The plot has over 100 coconut trees and has a market value of Rs 75,000 per cent. “According to preliminary estimate, the plot is worth Rs 75 lakh,” said the Collector.
Raveendran has been running his textile shop for the past 10 years. Akhil is into laterite stone quarrying, and Akash is pursuing his MBA in University of Greenwich in London. His youngest daughter, Ananya P R, 20, is a computer science engineering student at MIT College in Kanhangad.