KOCHI: Hundreds of Moolampilly evictees, annoyed with the state government’s tardy move in implementing Moolampilly Rehabilitation Package, are planning to run a campaign in Aruvikkara, where the by-poll is set to take place on June 27.
The campaign would be to protest against the ‘denial of justice’ to the families displaced by the Vallarpadam Container Terminal project, said Francis Kalathunkal, general convener of the Coordination Committee.
He said state leaders are campaigning for development in Aruvikkara, but the people must know what they have done to the 316 families of Moolampilly, who were evicted for a development project.
Francis said they are not against development, but the government shouldn’t ignore the cries of the evictees who have suffered for a common cause. They have been knocking at the doors of various government offices for the last eight years for their stake and help build a home of their own and a life, said Francis.
The rehabilitation package announced four years ago is still stuck in red tapes. Twenty-two among the evicted have already died, mostly on the pain of the loss they had suffered. The people of Aruvikkara should know about this, how sincere the government has been to its people, and how complacent it has been in making hollow promises, he said.
A protest dharna will be held outside the Secretariat to demand speedy implementation of the package.
A delegation will thereafter go to Aruvikkara and carry out the campaign, said Coordination Committee members. The state government had offered under the package four cents of land to each displaced families, cash compensation for the land and building acquired and job for a member of each family, depending on their educational qualification when the project would be commissioned.
A few evictees were given the four-cent land in a marshy area, but with a rider that the transaction would be allowed only after 25 years, they said, adding that majority of them are still forced to live in makeshift tents. With the result, recipients of the four cents are still not able to raise even a loan on it. The promise to reimburse the 12 per cent cut from the compensation towards Income Tax has also not been honoured by the government, they said.
