What Kerala’s new township for Wayanad landslide victims will look like

This comes as the state and the central governments continue to spar over aid for rehabilitation of the landslide victims.

Revenue Minister K Rajan said the rehabilitation project is “a model from Kerala to the world”. Thursday’s function is expected to be attended by the state Cabinet, Opposition leader V D Satheesan and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, among others.

“The entire state and its people joined hands with the state government for this Kerala model of disaster management. In the first phase of rehabilitation, the displaced survivors have been shifted to rented premises. The rehabilitation is entering into another phase with the laying of the foundation stone,” he said.

The minister said the township was planned “after factoring in the views of the survivors, who lost many of their families and friends, and wanted to live together in a community”.

“They wanted to live together in an area as they had been before the tragedy. Thus, the government zeroed in on a township. Houses will be constructed for all the homeless affected families in the next fiscal itself. The state budget has set apart an amount Rs 750 for Wayanad rehabilitation,” he said.

As many as 242 families are included in the first phase of the rehabilitation. Of them, 175 beneficiaries have given their consent for a house at the township, while 67 others, who want to live outside the township, have agreed for a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each, the minister said.

The government has put a condition barring ownership transfer of the houses in the township for 12 years.

Each house will come up in 7 cents of land (one cent equals 435.6 sq. feet, or 1/100th of an acre), will have an area of 1,000 sq.feet and will be built in small clusters. The construction of the single-storey houses and allied facilities has been entrusted to the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society.

Despite being offered houses away from the area, affected families can continue to own their land in the areas of Chooralmala and Mundakkai under Meppadi panchayat – the worst-hit areas in the landslide.

Even as a new township is slated to come up for the displaced families away from the ghost towns of Chooralmala and Mundakkai, the government has also taken steps for reviving Punnapuzha river and its banks, which had borne the brunt of the flow of debris on the night of the landslide, officials said.

Since the disaster had caused the river to divert around 8 km downstream, the state government has awarded a contract of Rs 195 crore to the labour contract society to clear debris from the river, correct its course and recover land on both sides.

One of the biggest in the country, the Wayanad landslide hit the villages of Mundakkai, Chooralmala and Attamala in Meppadi panchayat and claimed 298 lives. Of them, 44 are still missing and are presumed dead.

As many as seven children lost both parents and 14 others at least one. Besides, 17 families have been wiped out.