KASARAGOD: Collector D Sajith Babu runs one of the most efficient district administrations in the state.
Sample this: On January 12, he decided that Sreenisha C (16), an endosulfan survivor born without the left forearm, and her family should be evicted from a house built for endosulfan survivors because the house was not allotted to them by the tahsildar.
The very next day, that is on January 13, the Pullur village officer called Sreenisha's mother Pushpa Latha and handed over the eviction notice to her. "We don't know what to do and where we should go," said Sasi C, a mason and Sreenisha's father.
The eviction notice was sent to Sreenisha a week after the Collector also got a different kind of notice.
On January 6, the Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) sent a notice to the Collector to explain in a week why houses built for endosulfan survivors in Periya are lying vacant for the past four years. "We have not yet got a response from the collector. We will be sending a reminder mail today," said P M Binukumar, the public relations officer of KSHRC.
The collector did not respond to a call made to his phone.
Ghost town
In 2017, Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust, a Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO, built 45 houses on five acres of government land at Eriya near Periya, for endosulfan survivors. According to a government order issued on October 1, 2016, each beneficiary family would get a small two-bedroom house and 10 cents of land.
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In 2017, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan handed over the keys and title deeds of houses and plots to 21 beneficiaries.
The rest of the houses are lying vacant, with wild grass over-running them.
The previous panchayat president of Pullur-Periya panchayat Sharadha Nair said the panchayat had drawn up a list of beneficiaries for the houses and gave it to the collector and the Sathya Sai trust. "But no action was taken on the list," she said.
At Perla in Enmakaje panchayat, the Joy Alukkas Foundation built another 36 houses on five acres of government land as part of the same Sathya Sai project. That cluster has no road access or power supply and looks like a ghost town without one resident.
'Let them evict us by force'
In July 2020, the panchayat and the Sathya Sai trust held a function and handed over the key of a house in the Periya Sai Gramam cluster to the family of Sreenisha C.
"We read about Sreenisha in newspapers after the Class X results. She had scored eight A+ and one A and one B+ grade and she was one of the beneficiaries of the houses in the list drawn up by the panchayat," said Sathya Sai trust's executive director K N Anandakumar.
He took up her case with the panchayat president. "Sreenisha is a fit case. Her family does not have a house and she is an endosulfan patient. So we forwarded her file to the collectorate," said Sharadha Nair.
Sreenisha's father Sasi said he did not know what transpired between the officials but he was handed over the key at a public function attended by the panchayat member and officials of the trust.
"But now the legal notice says we are illegally living in the house and should vacate the house till we get the title deed," he said.
Sreenisha said she was not inclined to leave the house. "Let them use force," said the Class XI student pursuing the biology course in Government Higher Secondary School at Periya.
Munisa Ambalathara, president of the Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani -- an NGO working for endosulfan survivors -- said the right thing for the collector to do was to give the family title deed of the plot instead of harassing them. "He should also take steps to allot the rest of the houses to endosulfan survivors rather than ill-treating them," she said.
'Seeking house for three years'
Tarun Edneer and his brother Sreerag E suffer from a rare genetic liver disorder called Wilson's disease in which excess copper builds up in the body. Tarun was included in the government's list of endosulfan victims in April 2017 but Sreeraj's name has not yet been included in the list. Both the brothers are in class IX of Government Vocational Higher Secondary School at Ambalathara.
Their parents Shantha E and father Sreedharan, a daily wage labourer, have been running around for a house at the Sai Gramam cluster for the past three years. "After two years of following up on our application, an official at the Endosulfan Cell asked me to apply again last year as if my two years had no value," said Shantha.
She applied for a house again at the collectorate on January 8, and one submitted a similar petition to revenue minister E Chandrasekharan on January 16.
Sumathi, the mother of 10-year-old Mithun, has resigned to her fate. Her son is paralysed waist down, cannot sit, cannot hear, and suffers from organic acidemia and delayed growth.
Her house is at Bapunkayam, an area on the fringes of forest in Panathady panchayat. The government gave her 50 cents at Bapunkayam as the family belongs to the Mavilan Scheduled Tribe. "But that remote land is of no use for me as I have to take my child to the hospital now and then. The government should take back the land and allot me a house at Sai Gramam," she said.
The mother and child now stay at her sister's house at Ambalathara in Pullur-Periya panchayat for ease of travel.
Trouble in the cluster
Those living in the cluster are equally troubled. Residents said the revenue department gave them title deeds but did not identify the houses for them. "So we chose houses which had fewer steps. Most of the houses had six to seven steps which were not disabled-friendly," Vishalan C V, a coconut plucker.
He was among the first persons to start living in the clusters. "The houses were built on rocky terrain and there was no courtyard," he said.
So the residents brought laterite soil from outside to make courtyards and reduce the plinth height and reduce the number of steps. Many residents, including Vishalan, planted coconut trees and other trees too. "Now we come to know that our title deeds and the houses we are living in do not match. Only one of the 22 families living in the cluster has got their house and title deed correct," he said.
So now none of the 22 families has a house number or ration cards.
'10 cents not available'
Though the government said that 10 cents would be given to each of the beneficiaries, several of the houses were constructed so close to one another that survey officials could not demarcate 10 cents for the houses.
Officialese
When TNIE contacted the Deputy Collector of Endosulfan Cell -- responsible for the welfare and rehabilitation of the endosulfan survivor -- he handed the phone to the junior superintendent.
The junior official said beneficiaries should be happy with the house and three cents. "That way we can construct more houses on the five acres," he said.
On the vacant houses, the government has received more applications than houses available and so the beneficiaries would be selected by drawing lots.
He said several beneficiaries were not staying in the houses despite the government giving them title deeds.
According to the agreement, the government can cancel the title deed if beneficiaries were not occupying the houses within one month, he said.
But Anandakumar, the Sathya Sai trust's executive director, said only 21 title deeds were given, though 45 houses were constructed at Periya and another 36 in Enmakaje village. "That is why we filed a complaint with the human rights commission. We are now planning to go to the high court too," he said.
On the eviction notice sent to Sreenisha, Hosdurg tahsildar N Maniraj said the family was staying in the house without a title deed. "The family was not selected as a beneficiary. The collector said deserving people should get the house and that's why an eviction notice was served to the family," he said.