First family moves into Wayanad township
The first family displaced by Wayanad's landslide has moved into a new home in a rehabilitation township, highlighting Kerala's support for disaster survivors.
The first family displaced by Wayanad's landslide has moved into a new home in a rehabilitation township, highlighting Kerala's support for disaster survivors.
The first family displaced by Wayanad's landslide has moved into a new home in a rehabilitation township, highlighting Kerala's support for disaster survivors.
Nearly two years after the devastating landslide in Wayanad, the first beneficiary family of the rehabilitation township project moved into their newly built home at Elstone Estate in Kalpetta on Sunday.
The first resident of the township is K Vijayan, a native of Chooralmala who lost his house in the landslide on July 30, 2024, that ravaged the Mundakkai and Chooralmala villages. Former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan shared the family’s happiness through a WhatsApp video call and assured them that he would visit the house during his next trip to Wayanad.
The family entered the new house in the presence of former minister O R Kelu and several CPM leaders. Speaking to the media, Vijayan described the moment as one he would never forget. “I never imagined that I would one day own such a beautiful house,” he said, adding that the kind of collective support extended to disaster survivors could only be witnessed in Kerala.
“My happiness is beyond words. Nowhere else would survivors receive such a new beginning as they have in Kerala,” he added, while expressing gratitude to the State government for its support. CPM district secretary K Rafeeq inaugurated the celebrations by cutting a cake. CPM State Committee member C K Saseendran, DYFI district secretary K M Francis and Kalpetta Municipal Chairperson P Viswanathan were among those who attended the function along with relatives and friends.
Vijayan’s home, numbered 38, is part of the ‘D Cluster’ in the township project. The remaining beneficiaries are expected to move into their houses together once all the homes are fully completed and handed over.
The Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS), the lead contractor for the project, has completed quality inspections for 150 houses out of the first batch of 178 homes. The remaining units will be allotted after the completion of final pre-handover procedures.
Although work under the first phase of the project is nearing completion, construction activities are still underway in some sections. All 178 survivors who received keys from Pinarayi Vijayan during a function held at the project site on March 1 are expected to move into their homes once ULCCS completes the remaining formalities.