Pathanamthitta: Amid the deep the financial crisis, funding for constructions under the Kerala government's much-celebrated housing project, Life Mission, has come to a grinding halt. Hundreds of families have been waiting for funds to complete building their houses.
Beneficiaries of the Life Mission Scheme complain that their house construction was interrupted as the local government stopped funding the project.
The situation of these homeless people came to light when a lottery seller in Pathanamthitta died by suicide, disappointed with the non-completion of his house.
In Pathanamthitta's Seethathode panchayat, the construction of over 250 houses was interrupted. Most of the beneficiaries who demolished their houses to construct a new house under the project have been living in makeshift sheds which could collapse any moment. Apartment constructions for the homeless at Adoor and Pandalam have also come to a standstill.
At Omallur panchayat, nearly 38 beneficiaries have been waiting for funds from authorities to complete their house construction. Unable to complete the construction of his new house, Gopi, a lottery seller from Omallur, immolated himself on Saturday. He had planned to shift to the new house with his sick wife before Onam. Despite purchasing materials for the concrete work, the house construction was halted as the panchayat failed to release the next instalment for the concrete work.
In Seethathode, an elderly man named Gopalakrishnan has been living in a makeshift shed for more than one and a half years. He had demolished his old house after the panchayat approved his request for a new house under the Life Mission Project. The foundation work was completed with the first instalment. But Gopalakrishnan didn't receive a single rupee from the panchayat to continue the work later. Amid this, he was diagnosed with cancer.
Seethathode Panchyat had approved requests of over 250 people to create a record by constructing the highest number of houses under Life Mission. Unfortunately, their plans turned into a big failure as the government was forced to cancel funding for social welfare projects due to financial crisis.
Life Mission Project
The state government launched the Life Mission project to assure safe and decent housing to all homeless and landless people in Kerala. Fund for the house construction will be released in four instalments- Rs 1 lakh from the government, a loan of Rs 2.20 lakh from the Rural Development Corporation and Rs 80,000 from local self-government. People belonging to the general category will receive Rs 4 lakh under the project while SC/ST category will get Rs 6 lakh.
