KOCHI: Most people do not mind giving away money for a good cause, but only a few would be ready to donate their precious pieces of land to charity. A majority of the people who responded to the state government’s ‘Manasodithiri Mannu’ campaign have driven home the message that one does not have to be rich to do good for the less privileged.
These ordinary men and women parted with their modest land holdings to help economically backward families get a roof over their heads. One among those noble souls is Jasmine-Rawther Haneefa couple of Aranmula, who sacrificed their long-cherished dream of going for the Hajj pilgrimage to do their bit for the cause.
Launched in last December, the campaign aims at mobilising land to set up houses for landless families registered under the LIFE Mission free housing programme of the state government. As the number of landless families registered under the mission is set to cross 3.17 lakh, the government is gearing up for an aggressive version of the campaign.
So far, 17.57 acres of land, including those in the process of ownership transfer, were received as part of the campaign. A majority of the 39 donors are commoners. Industrialist Kochouseph Chittilappilly, IUML’s Abdul Wahab MP and filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan also donated land for the cause. The Federal Bank donated a property and has expressed its willingness to hand over two more. Pathanamthitta tops the list with seven donors, and Kasaragod is the only district where the campaign did not get a single response.
Aranmula residents Jasmine and Rawther Haneefa hit the headlines last week when they donated 28 cents of land. Their original plan was to sell the land and raise funds for a Hajj trip. Haneefa’s son is an engineering graduate looking for a job, and his daughter is working on a contract basis with the state health department. The market value of the land donated by the couple is around Rs 42 lakh. “Money is not everything. We are happy that we could bring light to the life of some economically backward families,” he says.
Retired college teacher Dr R B Rajalekshmi and her brother R B Babu donated 65 cents of their ancestral property at Velloor in Kottayam.
“I always wanted to help the homeless. But I could not afford to build houses for them. Now with the help of my brother, I could help 13 families get houses,” she says. Rajalekshmi is left with 15 cents of land at Velloor and another eight-cent property in Thiruvananthapuram, where she lives.