Kalpetta: Hours after Onmanorama reported on Chooralmala landslide victim Annayyan K's struggle to earn a living -- and the Congress-run Kalpetta Municipality sitting on his application for an autorickshaw permit -- the local body sprang into action. 

The halting place permit, which Annayyan (67) applied for three months ago, will now be officially handed over to him at a small ceremony on Monday, said Kalpetta municipal chairman and Congress leader Isaac T J. "Usually, we just issue the permit to the driver," he said. "But now that it has become news, we thought we would laminate the permit and hand it over to him properly," he told Onmanorama.

Isaac's decision to act on war footing comes after Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took note of the report. "She read Manorama's English article and her office directed the Chairman to resolve the matter immediately," he said.

He added that he has organised a small event, with a photo opportunity, at the municipal office on Monday morning. 

Annayyan confirmed that he received a call from Isaac and would be going to the office to collect the permit. 

Isaac hinted that the municipality had delayed processing the application due to pressure from autorickshaw unions, which were opposed to allowing more autos to operate in Kalpetta. 

Until now, Annayyan had been working "like a thief", as he puts it -- slipping through Meppadi and Kalpetta, picking up passengers on the move to avoid hostile union members. On a good day, he earns barely ₹200. 

The autorickshaw was donated by Providence College, Kozhikode, in March. Shortly afterwards, the government stopped the ₹9,000 monthly livelihood support even though the local body still hadn’t granted him a permit.

Once among the most successful farmers in Chooralmala, earning around ₹20 lakh per year, Annayyan lost his two-acre farm in a landslide. His four-room building in the Chooralmala market was also destroyed. The government is yet to compensate him for either the farmland or the commercial property.

He is now preparing to sue the state government for compensation. "I want my farmland back so that I can return as a farmer,” he said.