'If a vehicle came on time, I’d have had atleast one of my sons alive': woman on Attappady tragedy

Palakkad: Devi, the mother of two children who died after the sunshade of an under-construction house collapsed in Attappady, said that if a vehicle had arrived on time, at least one of them could have been saved. She claimed that her elder son was still alive when he was pulled out of the debris.

Aadi (7) and Ajnesh (4), sons of Devi and Ajay from the Karuvara settlement, died after an under-construction house collapsed around 6.30 pm on Saturday. According to police, the house gave way while the children were playing inside. Another child, Abhinaya (6) — daughter of Anitha and Murkan — was injured in the accident.

The families and relatives of the victims have raised serious allegations of negligence against the local authorities in the tribal hamlet.

 “If a vehicle had been made available in time, at least one of the children could have been saved. Despite repeated calls to the tribal promoter and the local ward member, there was no response,” she said.

As no vehicle arrived, even after multiple attempts to arrange transport, the family was forced to take the injured children to the hospital on a motorbike.

Congress protest against ITDP 
Meanwhile, the Congress accused that the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) was responsible for the tragedy. The party alleged that the ITDP's negligence in completing the construction of the house led to the mishap. The party added that several other such houses under the IDTP project remain unfinished in the same tribal settlement.

The collapsed house belonged to Ramesh, a resident of Karuvara settlement. ITDP had sanctioned the house for him in 2016, but construction came to a halt as Ramesh could not raise additional funds. Authorities stated that of the ₹4.64 lakh sanctioned for the project, ₹3.32 lakh had already been disbursed to the beneficiary.

Karuvara hamlet is located about 4 km from Mukkali, deep inside the forest area.