Kasaragod:
In the run-up to Kerala Piravi on November 1, when the LDF government was preparing to celebrate a state free of extreme poverty and its claim of constructing 15,000 houses for the homeless, 40-year-old Shainimol N, a BJP panchayat member from Bekal, and her grandmother, 90-year-old Paru, a fish seller, waited with bated breath.

Their relief came on November 4, when the Tribunal for Local Self Government Institutions in Thiruvananthapuram stayed a month-old order issued by the CPM-led Udma grama panchayat to demolish their 500-sq-ft house -- home to their eight-member family spanning four generations.

Like hundreds of homes along the Udma coast, their house near Hotel Valappil, close to the Trikkannad temple, stands wedged between the Kasaragod-Kanhangad coastal highway and the sea wall -- the road running barely 25 metres from the sea wall.

Panchayat secretary Adithiyan A said the demolition order was served on the panchayat member and Paru because their house exists in violation of the rules of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ). Assistant Secretary Praveen Kumar said Paru was picked because the panchayat got a complaint against her house from her hostile neighbour, a retired KSEB engineer. “When we get a complaint, we have to act. Otherwise, there are scores of houses in the same fishermen’s settlement,” he said.

Though both the neighbour and panchayat officials cited CRZ violations, the demolition order itself invoked only the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act.

According to the order, Paru “demolished her thatched-roof house and built a reinforced concrete (RCC) house at the same site without prior permission from the panchayat secretary, violating the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, 2019”.

The secretary, invoking Section 235W(1) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and Rule 4(2) of the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules, ordered the demolition, stating the family began construction without his permission or a building permit.

Shainimol, the first undergraduate (BA English) in the fisher family, pointed out that the same Section 235W also empowered the secretary to regularise the construction by levying a penalty. The family did not apply for a building permit since the government has not regularised ownership of the five-cent plot that Paru has called home for the past 54 years.

Paru said she set up a shack on the plot in 1971, when only three other families lived nearby. “I came here because the joint family’s house in the fishermen’s colony got too crowded for me and my four daughters,” she said.

The panchayat has assigned the house a number, and its ledger abstract carries records of the building since 1999.

“Since 2005, we have been applying for a title deed. The government replied in 2011, 2017, and 2018. But whenever the village officers came for a ground report, he -- our hostile neighbour -- would threaten and chase them away,” said Shainimol.

Paru is livid with the government for never standing by her. “They say this house should be demolished. But I didn’t build it with panchayat money. I worked hard and built it with the Rs 10 and Rs 20 I saved every day. I have never received any help from the panchayat,” she said.

When her four daughters were small, her husband Karuppan died of a heart attack while at sea. She replaced her thatched hut with a tile-roofed house in 1991, as the old one could no longer withstand the strong coastal winds. In 2018, the family decided to build the house with a concrete roof after rodents, including bandicoots nesting in the seawall, began damaging the foundation and gnawing through the rafters. “The roof was falling apart, so we had no option,” said Shainimol.

It took them six years to complete the house. But as soon as they started the construction work, the retired KSEB engineer began petitioning the panchayat. When Paru moved the tribunal, he became a party to the case and later approached the High Court, which refused to interfere as the matter was pending before the tribunal.

In 2024, when Paru completed the construction, the first demolition order was served. The tribunal stayed it, citing procedural lapses such as not serving notice to her and recording her statement. When the stay was lifted, the panchayat served the second demolition order on October 3.

The house shelters Paru, her daughter Nalini, and son-in-law; Nalini’s two children, including Shainimol; and Shainimol’s husband and two school-going children.

Under CRZ rules, land within 200 metres of the high-tide line in rural areas is designated a no-development zone, but existing structures are exempt. The 2011 and 2019 CRZ regulations permit repair, renovation, or reconstruction of old houses, provided the existing floor area is retained.

Further, Section 9 of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2019, allows the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA) to regularise houses built by traditional coastal communities such as fisherfolk and tribals, even if they lacked prior approval -- provided they are used only for residence and not sold or transferred outside the community.

Paru’s home meets both conditions, which perhaps explains why the panchayat avoided citing CRZ violations in its demolition order and instead relied on the Panchayat Raj Act.

But the injustice meted out to Paru’s family extends beyond the demolition threat. Her house is the only one in the area without access to drinking water. “Our borewell has only saline water. When the Jal Jeevan Mission pipelines were laid, the trench for our house connection was dug, but the neighbour created a fuss, and the workers covered it up without laying the pipeline,” she said.

The CRZ regulations explicitly allow facilities such as water supply, drainage, and sewerage in the no-construction zone for the local inhabitants.

Paru said the government should focus on strengthening the sea wall instead of demolishing her house. “All I have is this five cents and this house. I have nowhere else to go. The government should strengthen the sea wall, not tear down my home. Otherwise, no house will survive the sea,” she said.

Her words echo a lifetime of struggle. “My grandmother is 90, but she hasn’t spent a single night in peace. In her sixties, she was running around courts and the Collectorate. She suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease -- and now, memory loss too. Yet she has no choice but to stand and fight,” said Shainimol.