Kasaragod Collector keeps his word, gifts 18 cycles to children of Kannankol tribal settlement

Kasaragod: Eighteen children from two tribal settlements in Delampady panchayat received bicycles on Monday, months after they told Collector Arjun Pandian that they needed them to travel to school.

The children of Kannankol Ooru, a settlement about 60 km from the Kasaragod district headquarters, had raised the demand when Pandian visited the hamlet in March to assess the problems faced by its residents. The Collector later rode a bicycle with the children through the settlement after handing them over.

Kannankol Ooru, on the border of Karnataka, has 16 families belonging to the Malavettuvan Scheduled Tribe, most of whom depend on daily-wage tribal work. Fourteen of the families have school-going children. The remaining four bicycles went to children from another tribal settlement in Delampady panchayat, said panchayat president A Mustafa, who presided over the function.

The bicycles were bought using the Collectorate's Dhanwanthari Fund, which pools donations from sponsors, private individuals and NGOs for specific causes.

The bicycle request was among several issues raised by residents during Pandian's March visit. They sought houses, land titles, access roads, a community study room for children and infrastructure works.

The district administration has since sanctioned ₹1 crore under the Ambedkar Settlement Development Scheme for drinking-water facilities and a road to the settlement, Mustafa said.

Solution to housing issues
Housing, however, remains a more complicated issue. Of the 16 houses in Kannankol Ooru, 14 are currently considered uninhabitable, Mustafa said. Two houses are being rebuilt under another scheme.

"The panchayat could provide funds to build houses, but nine families do not have the land in their own names. The land is still registered in the names of their grandparents or great-grandparents," Mustafa said.

The district administration is now working on cancelling the existing title deeds, re-demarcating the land and assigning it to the families living there, he said. Each of the nine families is expected to receive about 10 cents.

The other seven families have the documents needed to transfer the land to their names and own between 40 and 50 cents each, Mustafa said. Once the land ownership issues are resolved, the district administration has assured the residents that resources will be mobilised to help build houses, he added.

During his March visit, Pandian, a 2017-batch officer, also took the children around the settlement in his official vehicle. The children later visited him at the Collectorate, where they asked for a football. They received six footballs and an air pump, and the administration arranged a trip and lunch at Bekal Beach Park.

The children used that interaction to ask for bicycles to travel to school. The administration subsequently surveyed the requirement through the Scheduled Tribes Development Department and arranged 18 bicycles.

The district administration has also been working with the Scheduled Tribes Development Department and the General Education Department on a programme aimed at reducing school dropouts among tribal children and increasing enrolment, officials said. An excursion for children from tribal settlements across the district was also organised in May.