Wayanad’s township puzzle: Total beneficiaries: 459, opted out: 104, Kerala govt still to build 410 houses

On July 30, the first anniversary of the Mundakkai–Chooralmala landslide, the Kerala government reiterated its commitment to building houses for all 410 families it had identified as requiring permanent rehabilitation. On the same day, the cabinet approved the addition of 49 more families to the list, raising the total number of housing beneficiaries to 459.

It announced that construction of the 410 houses -- spread across 150 acres of Elstone Estate in Kalpetta -- would be completed by December 31.

Each beneficiary of the government’s township will receive an independent three-bedroom house, measuring 1,000 sqft, on a seven-cent plot. The houses, costing ₹30.79 lakh (excluding GST) each, are being built with foundations strong enough to support a second storey in the future, said an official coordinating rehabilitation efforts at the collectorate.

The announcement to stick to 410 houses, however, has left district officials and local leaders perplexed. By June, 104 beneficiaries had formally opted out of the government’s township project, submitting letters to the District Collector to relinquish their claims.

In response, the government disbursed ₹15 lakh each to them -- a total payout of ₹15.6 crore, according to a senior official at the collectorate.

Yet, despite this significant revision in beneficiary status, officials confirm there are no immediate plans to scale down the number of houses being built.

According to government guidelines, a house qualifies as affected if it meets any of three conditions: One, it is located within the designated disaster zone; two, it falls within the 50-metre buffer zone surrounding the disaster area, classified as a no-go zone; and three, the house is inaccessible because the roads or terrain around it have been destroyed or rendered impassable.

People's representatives, such as MLA Siddique and residents, said the applications for houses from the 49 families were pending before the government for months. "Their applications could have been accepted immediately because their houses fell within the no-go zone. The government delayed the announcement for the anniversary," said N K Sukumaran, Meppadi panchayat member representing Attamala ward.

But even after the inclusion of the 49 families in the housing beneficiary list, the list is incomplete, he said.

Sukumaran has compiled a list of 83 families in the three worst-hit wards — Attamala (Ward 10), Mundakkai (11), and Chooralmala (12) -- who, he said, need houses.

According to him, the houses of 15 families living in the lane quarters of the tea estate in Mundakkai, and 12 families at Rattapadi in the same ward are either destroyed, damaged or inaccessible. In his Attamala ward, 27 families near the Bailey bridge and Village Road face similar challenges. In Chooralmala ward, 29 families at Padavattikkunnu, 300 metres from the officially declared disaster zone, live in precarious conditions because of the landslide.

Ramlath M, a former member of the sanitation mission Haritha Karma Sena in Mundakkai ward, said she receives ₹6,000 per month as rental assistance from the government, yet her name is missing from the housing beneficiary list. "My house is gone. The entire ward is gone," she said, backing Congress leader Sukumaran's claim that 15 families living in the lane quarters in Mundakai have been left out.

Shaija, a CPI member and former Mundakkai ward member who helped identify nearly 100 bodies after the landslide, said every resident of the ward should be rehabilitated. Electorally, the emptied-out Mundakai has been merged with Chooralmala ward, where around 375 families are staying back in unaffected areas.

Initially, the government declared all three wards -- Chooralmala, Attamala and Mundakai -- as affected areas, making all the residents eligible for compensation, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

But later, the government constituted an expert committee headed by John Mathai, a retired scientist of the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), to demarcate safe and unsafe areas along the landslide path in Mundakkai-Chooralmala. The committee concluded that areas beyond 50 metres from the disaster zone were safe.

"The damage is limited to a thin zone along the riverbank in Mundakkai," the report noted.

But the rigid demarcation, referred to by residents as 'Mathai's kutti' (boundary markers), has created confusion. For instance, while the main block of the Government LP School falls in the 'safe' zone, its annexe is labelled 'unsafe' -- though in reality, the entire school has been shifted to Meppadi.

Sukumaran pointed out another flaw: the Chooralmala marketplace, the only access point to Mundakkai, is now declared a no-go zone. Yet parts of Mundakkai itself are marked safe.

"The demarcation only considers the latest landslide," he said. "There's been no assessment of potential slides from other nearby hills."

Residents pointed out another flaw in the identification of house beneficiaries. They said tenants in rented houses that were destroyed or in no-go zones were being either compensated or given houses in the township, but the building owners are not considered. CPM's K Rafeeq defended the government's position, saying the house owners should negotiate with the tenants if they want compensation. The government can consider only one party, he said.

Similarly, people who have bought small residential plots and have started building houses or are yet to build houses are not compensated at all. "As tourism was booming, one cent in Chooralmala town was going for ₹5 lakh," said Roy Padipurakkal, who, with his brother Reji, was running a flour mill and internet-cum-photocopying business on a five-cent plot in Chooralmala. More than 75 commercial establishments, including theirs, in the three wards suffered losses. Fifty-four building owners are moving the court for compensation.

According to the government, all 410 houses across five zones will be ready by December 31. But on the ground, only ₹20 crore has been released -- enough for 100 houses. While a model house is complete, foundation pits were dug for 50 homes. This mismatch between plan and progress has raised questions at the grassroots. Local leaders wonder why people in need are still excluded from the government list, even as the government prepares to build far more homes than may be required.

Siddique said that in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, corporate houses, religious and cultural organisations, and private individuals had offered to build around 1,000 houses. "If the government had stepped in as a coordinator, set clear guidelines for construction, and helped facilitate land purchases for housing projects, it could have used the ₹780 crore available in the CMDRF to fairly compensate farmers who lost their land, as well as building owners and small landholders who had invested their life savings," he said.