Thiruvananthapuram may have mega projects like seaports and IT hubs and futuristic transportation systems like monorail lined up for the future, but the capital district is also home to the largest number of landless families in the state, reveal statistics presented in the Assembly on Monday.
Of the little of over 2.33 lakh families reported as ‘landless’ in the state, 39,636 are in Thiruvananthapuram, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash told the House in a written reply.
Prakash has based his information on the number of applicants for the Zero Landless (Citizens) Kerala 2015 Project. In all, 2,33,232 families have registered for the project so far.
The state government plan is to distribute three cents of land each to the families. In the number of landless families, Thiruvananthapuram is followed by Ernakulam and Kollam with 29,608 and 27,822 families respectively. Thrissur and Palakkad follow with 27,196 and 20,433 families each, the Minister said.
As on September 2012, the state government had 608.68 hectares in its kitty across the state for distribution. But in the case of most of the districts, the acreage does not correspond with the number of families awaiting land. For instance, in Kannur, the number of applicants is relatively low, but the district has the largest area of land available for distribution - 325.01 hectares. In comparison, Thiruvananthapuram has only 27.14 hectares.