COIMBATORE: Forty-Seven houses that were built for tribal families in Puliyankandi village in Kottur Town panchayat near Pollachi 27 years ago are in a dilapidated state, with cement plaster crumbling in many houses.
According to sources, over 40 houses were built in 1996 under the social forest scheme and allotted to tribal people. Expressing fear of staying in the houses any longer, the families have appealed to the district administration to renovate them at the earliest.
“There are 120 families, including 41 tribal families, living in Puliyankandi and 47 families are in immediate need of safe houses,” said M Muniyappan.
Tamil Nadu tribal people’s association president VS Paramasivam said the families are living in constant fear of the houses collapsing. The rain may worsen the condition further, he added.
“The houses were constructed by the forest department two decades ago and they started weakening in the last ten years. Despite repeated appeals, the forest and revenue departments have not yet carried out repair works,” Paramasivam alleged.
When contacted, revenue department officials said they would arrange Rs 5.25 lakh each for 25 beneficiaries to build houses in the first phase and cover the remaining people in the second phase. Also, the revenue officials issued E-Patta documents to the beneficiaries recently. The people told officials that if they delayed the repair or reconstructing houses, they would shift their places into the forest boundary, according to the sources.
The special tahsildar (Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare) Venkatachalam said there are no provisions for repairing houses in the town panchayat limit. Hence they planned to reconstruct the houses allotted to the tribal people. “We have received sanction to build 150 houses in Vettaikaranpudur town panchayat and we are working to include these 25 houses from Kottur panchayat in that scheme,” Venkatachalam said.