KASARGOD: 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, 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 too got a notice, of a different kind. 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 haven’t received a response yet from the collector. We will be sending a reminder 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. In 2017, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan handed over the keys and title deeds of houses to 21 beneficiaries. The rest of the houses are lying vacant, with wild grass over-running them.The previous 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 Joyalukkas Foundation built another 36 houses on five acres of government land as part of the same Sathya Sai project. That cluster — which has no road access or power supply — 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. “We read of Sreenisha in the papers after the Class X results. She had scored eight A+ and one A and one B+ grade and was one of the beneficiaries 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.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.“Now, the legal notice says we are living in the house illegally and should leave 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 at the Government HSS, Periya.Munisa Ambalathara, president of the Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani said the right thing for the collector to do was to give the family the title deed of the plot.
‘Seeking house for 3 yrs’
Tarun Edneer, an endosulfan survivor, and his brother Sreerag suffer from a rare genetic liver disorder called Wilson’s Disease. Their parents Shantha E and Sreedharan have been running around for a house at the Sai Gramam cluster for the past three years. She applied for a house again at the collectorate on January 8 and submitted a petition to Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan on January 16. Sumathi, the mother of 10-year-old Mithun, has resigned to her fate. She too has been running around for a house with the boy who is paralysed waist down, cannot even sit, cannot hear, suffers from organic acidemia, and delayed growth. Her house is at Bapunkayam, an area on the forest fringe 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.
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 picked the 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 do not match. Only one of the 22 families living in the cluster has got their house and title deed correct,” he said.So none of the 22 families have a house number or ration cards.When TNIE contacted the Deputy Collector of Endosulfan Cell, responsible for the welfare and rehabilitation of the endosulfan survivor, he gave the phone to the junior superintendent. He (JS) said the beneficiaries should be happy with a house and three cents.