The Wayanad landslide survivors’ long wait for again having a home of their own seems to be nearing an end with the Kerala government announcing a master plan for their rehabilitation. The Rs 750-crore plan aims to construct single-storey, 1,000-sq-ft houses in two townships that will also have parks, markets, healthcare centres, schools and public sanitation facilities. Apart from using state funds, the government also plans to invite private sponsorships for the project.
Last July, the towns of Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad district were destroyed by the deadliest landslide ever in Kerala. It killed more than 300 people and destroyed numerous houses, rendering their inhabitants homeless. Since that fateful day, most survivors have been living in rented houses, while a few others are staying with their relatives. The delay in finding them new homes was primarily because the owners of the estate earmarked by the government for rehabilitating the survivors went to court against the move. Last week, the Kerala High Court upheld the government’s decision to acquire a portion of the lands that Harrisons Malayalam and Elstone Tea Estates own. The court held that the marked areas can be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act if fair compensation is paid. At about the same time, almost five months after a central inter-ministerial team visited Wayanad, the Union government classified it as a disaster of ‘severe nature’, which allowed access to some central funds.
It is indeed welcome that the state government has included livelihood in the rehabilitation project. Now its promise of providing Rs 15 lakh to the families that do not want to live in the townships must also be provided without delay. For all this, it’s important for the state government to release an accurate final list of the region’s disaster-affected families. Fairness must be maintained at all steps along the way—the sense of impartiality in such processes goes a long way in healing the trauma of loss. The government has also promised that the townships would be completed in 15 months. That promise, too, must be kept at all costs, as these houses are the last hope of those who have lost their dear ones and everything they owned in that one tragic night.