ALAPPUZHA: Some 135 families in Purakkad panchayat and surrounding areas continue to lead a troubled life in camps despite many representations and protests. V. Dinakaran, Akhila Kerala Dheevara Sabha general secretary, will sit on a satyagraha in front of the collectorate on Wednesday to highlight their plight. "We still don’t know why they remain homeless," he said. "Whenever we ask authorities they keep promising that everything would be alright soon. But the reality is nothing happens on the ground."
"In Thiruvananthapuram district over 100 homeless people had been settled. Why the step motherly attitude to these fishers who lost their life in sea erosion?" he asks. Bindu Shaji, the ward member, says for last four years, they were living there. They staged an agitation before the panchayat on December 17 and locked up officials. Though they were promised a meeting with the district collector, before Jan 17, nothing happened, and they are still languishing in camps including Government New LP School.
Many of them have taken refuge in homes of relatives, and few were forced to move to rented houses for the protection of their children. In 2013, eight families lost homes. It went up to 11 in 2014 and 39 in 2015 while 32 more left homeless last year. Saraswathy, 60, was living alone in camps for a year since waves swept her five-cent house away and her two sons shifted their families to their in-laws'.
"I have no place to go," the widower laments. "We feel cheated," cries Rohini, 51. "Politicians come with a bundle of promises during elections and simply vanish." Their houses were under the tsunami rehabilitation project. But they had never expected such destructive sea erosion. Despite repeated calls and text messages, district collector Veena N. Madhavan did not respond to DC.
