MEPPADI: Valsala, a native of Chooralmala and a plantation worker with Harrisons Malayalam Ltd, was overwhelmed when she picked her draw during house allotment for survivors of Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide disaster held at MSA Auditorium in Meppadi on Friday.
The draw was conducted to allow the first batch of 178 beneficiaries select houses built under the township project at Kalpetta. Participants chose slips bearing three-digit codes indicating the zone, cluster and plot number of houses allotted to them.
“I couldn’t hold back my tears when I picked the lot. Memories of my 35-year-old son came flooding back. There hasn’t been a single day I haven’t cried thinking of him and my husband, both of whom died in the disaster,” said Valsala.
Title deeds for the allotted houses and seven-cent plots were handed over on stage. The event was an emotional moment for many survivors, who spent the past 18 months in rented accommodation.
Jayesh, from Chooralmala, who lost his house and several relatives in the disaster, said he felt relieved to finally secure a permanent shelter. “For the last one-and-a-half years we have been living in rented houses. Now we finally have a place to call our own,” he said.
Jayesh and several others visited the township at Elstone Estate later in the day to check their allotted houses. “Mine is House No. 249 in Zone 4. We are happy that after months of living scattered across the district, we can once again live together as a community,” he added.
For siblings C N Sudhakaran and C N Sathyan, whose neighbouring houses were destroyed in the landslide, the housing draw reunited them as neighbours, with both being allotted adjacent houses in the township.
Govt will provide financial help to those who lost shops and businesses in the disaster, said minister for SC/ST and backward classes welfare O R Kelu, at the function.
Houses selected by beneficiaries through the lottery cannot be exchanged with others. In the first phase, 178 families who completely lost their homes in the disaster will receive houses in the township. All 410 houses in the township have been assigned precise digital numbers. Through the draw, beneficiaries were allotted 115 houses in Zone 1, 30 in Zone 3 and 33 in Zone 4.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will formally hand over the house keys to survivors at a function on Feb 25. The survivors have to wait for a couple of weeks more to start living in the township as construction works of remaining houses and roads are yet to be completed.
