No LS poll fever as life as usual in this village at Kerala -Tamil Nadu border

Kottavasal in Kollam Lok Sabha constituency has not still woken up to the election frenzy that has gripped most parts of the state.
Chacko taking a break at Kottavasal Junction near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.| BP Deepu
Chacko taking a break at Kottavasal Junction near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.| BP Deepu

KOTTAVASAL(KOLLAM) : Sitting on a solitary chair teetering on one side of the two-lane National Highway 744, 82-year-old Chacko casts occasional glances across the road at a shack-like shop owned by him. The buzz of vehicles whizzing past and constant clamour of monkeys around him seem to have lost on him. The small tea-shop appears drab, with only an old calendar bearing DMK leader  K Stalin’s image, adorning its bare walls. For Chacko, the ongoing electoral fever is yet to make an impact on him. He is one of the several Keralites settled at Kottavasal and who have called Tamil Nadu their home for the past several decades.

Steeped in solitude, Kottavasal in Kollam Lok Sabha constituency is a border town between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It has not still woken up to the election frenzy that has gripped most parts of the state. The campaigning has gained momentum with posters of LDF candidate KN Balagopal and UDF’s NK Premachandran appearing at some places, but for these families living next to the forest, elections don’t appear to hold much significance in their scheme of things.

In 16 Acre, a place under Aryankavu Kshetram ward in Aryankavu panchayat, many families live on forest land, in and around either the 400 KV-line maintained by the Power Grid or the 800-m underground rail tunnel of the Madurai railways division.Election campaigns that erupt across the border hold little significance to most of the people here. For, more often than not, the perennial issues that have always plagued them never seem to be addressed by those in power. For almost all of them, getting title deeds for their land still remains an elusive dream.

Candidates come and go. Irrespective of whether they belong to the Left or Right, or whether they contest from Kerala or Tamil Nadu, but none seems to lend a genuine ear to their problems. “There are 60-odd families living next to the forest near the power line or around the underground rail tunnel. None of us has title-deeds. I even paid the tax for 13.5 cents of land once. But nothing happened,” recalls 62-year old Kuriakose Kochu Kunnil, who owns another dilapidated shop nearby.

Most of the families have got access to electricity and telephone connections. Some people like 67-year-old Shareefa has been engaged in bitter legal battles with the state Forest Department, even after so many years. “We are among those who moved to this land before 1977. We are therefore eligible for title deeds. But so far no steps have been taken to address the same,” she points out.

While some of them have been living here for decades, others like George, Joseph and Ragini, among others, moved to the area a few years ago. Agriculture is their main source of sustenance. “We get temporary possession certificates for each and every purpose from the panchayat,” says Aneesha, whose 67-year old mother Santha has been a resident here for more than 40 years. There have been promises to issue title-deeds to the residents for long, says Aryankavu Kshetram ward member Vijayamma Lakshmanan.

“Some of us possess more than an acre of land. Of the 56 families here, around 40 families have possession certificates. Others don’t have the requisite documents. In 1991, a joint inspection was carried out by the Forest and Revenue departments to identify the survey numbers, and we were told then that title deeds would be issued. Nothing has happened so far,” she observes. With yet another election around the corner, the authorities continue to woo them with empty promises, while they look on haplessly, wondering which side of the border is actually home.

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