As one approaches the end of Kochupally Road in Mundamveli, a small shed comes into view. Inside, a group of people have been sitting in protest for over a week.
Their demand: the right to live a decent life.
The protesters on an indefinite strike are residents of the ‘Life Mission’ apartments built by the GCDA in Mundamveli, handed over in 2024 to rehabilitate families affected by floods at the P&T Colony near Kadavanthra.
Two elderly women, Sathi and Valliammal, were among those at the protest.
“Most of the people living here are daily wage workers. They take turns to take leave from work to sit here in protest,” says Valliyammal.
“The apartments here are completely unlivable. The entire building remains damp because of leakages through the walls. Rainwater and water from bathrooms drip through every floor. Electric shocks are also common.”
Sathi says many now feel their humble homes in the P&T Colony were far better off.
“There, we had only one problem — flooding during the monsoon. During the season, we had to keep our belongings off the floor,” she says, referring to their old houses along the banks of the Perandoor Canal that were demolished after they moved out.
“We thought that was our biggest hardship. But here, we live with water woes every day, dripping all across the building.”
Ever since 420 people from 78 families moved into the newly built apartment complex in January 2024, problems have surfaced one after another.
Residents allege unscientific construction, faulty roofing, poor plastering that has left the entire building leaking, seepage from bathrooms, cracks, chunks of plaster falling off the walls. They also lament the absence of basic facilities such as elevators and ramps for the elderly and sick.
Once inside the narrow corridors, the Rs 14.61-crore housing project resembles poorly built temporary student accommodation rather than permanent homes.
Most residents work as domestic helpers, auto-rickshaw drivers and lottery vendors. Conversations reveal that they feel cheated, abandoned.
In one ground-floor unit, Ajith, an auto-rickshaw driver, points to corners where water seeps through joints exposing corroded iron. There are three floors above his house.
“Waste water from the bathrooms and kitchens on the upper floors keep oozing down,” he says.
“It has been happening since the beginning. Now the moisture has corroded the iron grilles in the pillars as well.”
In the bedroom where his children sleep, pieces of cement plastering have started falling off the walls. This reporter could indeed see the grilles exposed in several portions.
A floor above lives lottery vendor Mary Vijayan. The central beam pillar of the apartment is covered in mold — a common sight in several units here.
Her daughter cooks every day under an umbrella to protect the food from wastewater dripping into their cramped kitchen. “It’s waste water… all the food will go to waste,” she says.
Several residents also complain that the seepage often reeks. Some say they can’t even keep folded clothes — including school uniform — in the open as the “stinking spillage” would sully them.
Abhilash P Parameswaran, president of the residents’ association, has been spearheading the fighting for dignity and safety of the community over the past two years.
“On top of all this, we were recently told by an official that high-voltage electricity lines passing dangerously close to the property points to possible violations during the construction of the apartments,” he says, pointing to a written response from KSEB.
“Only a few weeks ago, a child in a nearby locality died of electrocution from a 110-kV line passing through our property. Another 64-kV power line also passes along the left side of the building, trapping this constantly damp structure between two high-voltage lines.”
Taking us around the complex, Abhilash highlights the lack of adequate facilities to handle sewage and septic waste. “The low-capacity sump overflows in a matter of days,” he says.
Earlier, the authorities had assured that they will be building a new treatment plant. But there has been no action yet.
These issues have been raised before the GCDA multiple times since February 2024. Although officials have visited the site several times and carried out maintenance work, residents say the problems keep resurfacing because they cannot be solved through patchwork repairs.
During the tenure of the previous GCDA leadership, experts from IIT Madras were entrusted with studying the defects in the two apartment blocks. At present, the headless GCDA is unable to take any decisions on the matter.
“GCDA had consulted IIT Madras to propose rectification measures for the construction defects. The institute submitted its final report, along with recommendations to arrest the leakage, in February this year,” says a top GCDA official, requesting anonymity.
“The next step is to assign a specialised agency to decide the methodology and estimate the cost of repairs. This is pending because the appointment of the GCDA governing body is still awaited. We have submitted the matter to the government.”
Meanwhile, the corporation — which owns the buildings — maintains that it cannot intervene because “the complaints relate to structural defects pertaining to the construction agency”.
“GCDA handed over the buildings to the corporation only after their inauguration. By then, the issues had already started surfacing,” says Mayor V K Minimol.
“We have informed the district collector and the minister concerned that these are construction-related defects that cannot be rectified by us. The issue has to be resolved by the GCDA.”
Taking note of the matter, LSGD Minister K M Shaji has sought a report from the chief engineer of the department, and also recommended a vigilance probe into allegations of corruption and substandard construction of the apartments.
Though they welcome the minister’s intervention a week ago, the protesting residents demand proper rehabilitation and assert that they will not settle for a band-aid solution. It is, they chorus, a matter of basic human rights.