Kalpetta: The first nature friendly model house constructed by Thanal, an NGO based at Thiruvananthapuram, for the flood victims was handed over by Minister for labour and excise T.P .Ramakrishnan at a function held here on Thursday. Mr Ramakrishnan received the key of the house from the sponsors of the housing project TK Jafer and Ahammed Haji of ID Fresh Foods.
The house was constructed for Kalathingal Pathumma, 70 of 4th Mile, who had lost her house in the flood waters. Cash strapped, the family of seven members were struggling to make two ends meet when the calamity struck. The marriage of her daughter has been fixed for October 7. Pathumma and family would shift to the new house soon, after some final finishing works.
Addressing the gathering, minister Ramakrishnan said that such models would be considered to construct homes in flood prone zones. Such initiatives give a creative message to the world, he added.
Our target is to ensure housing for all. The calamity struck when the LDF government was on with its mission, he said, adding that the state incurred a loss of about Rs 40,000 crores which also hit more than 1000 villages and 55 lakh persons. The house was constructed with the support of Pozhuthana village panchayat with the technical support of Urvi foundation. The house was completed with a budget of Rs 6.25 lakhs and in fifteen days.
The house on 3.5 cents land has 560 square feet area. The NGO Thanal has evinced its interest to construct such homes for another 70 houses to families in Mananthavadi municipality and Panamaram and Pozhuthana panchayats.
Panamaram panchayat has already identified 60 cents of land for the project at Palukunnu while Pozhuthana village panchayats has identified 40 cents land for the project. The uniqueness of each area also would be considered before selecting the construction model, office bearers of Thanal said.
