THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The allotment of houses to 20 families in the Karimadom colony raked up fresh conflicts on Thursday, with a group of people opposing the occupation of the houses. Following stiff resistance, Mayor K Chandrika called for a meeting late in the afternoon, which also did not yield any result. The protestors staged a sit-in in front of the Corporation office, shouting slogans accusing the Corporation of siding with the community organiser in the colony.
In the second phase of the Karimadom slum development project under the Basic Service to Urban Poor (BSUP), 560 beneficiaries were chosen to get fresh flats. In the first phase, 80 houses were allotted. Another 53 families who were evicted for the construction of the flats were living in the community hall nearby and in other rented places. Of them, 20 families were allotted flats back in July 2011 itself.
The problems began in August, when some of the residents here, who were allegedly not given any houses in the second phase, moved the court accusing the Corporation and community organiser in the colony of violating norms and showing discrimination in choosing the beneficiaries.
The petitioners, six of them, had moved the court saying that some of the beneficiaries included in the first phase (80 houses were allotted in that phase) were not even residents of the colony. They added that the selection of 80 persons was made through a lot system.
The High Court had ordered a stay on the allotment, asking the Corporation to file an affidavit regarding the matter. However, after the flash floods that hit the city last week, the Corporation submitted before the Court that around 40 houses were getting ready in the colony which should be permitted for occupation so that the residents get a breather from the waterlogging problems. To this, the Court agreed to a conditional occupation of the flats, saying the occupants can take up the houses permanently only after a final decision is arrived.
Following this, the Corporation entered into a provisional arrangement with the occupants, allowing them to temporarily occupy the flats. However, it was this move that was blocked by the petitioners on Thursday morning.
‘’A group of people, many of them from outside the colony, came in big numbers and raised protest when we were planning to get into the houses. It is a personal grudge against one of the family members that the people are expressing. It has put so many of us on the streets for all these months, even when our homes are so ready nearby,’’ said one of the residents.
At the meeting, where the Corporation officials made a point that the 20 families be permitted to enter the houses, the petitioners said that only after the final order of the Court would they allow the families to enter the houses.
Deputy Mayor G Happykumar, who is the convenor of the core committee which looks into the slum development issue, said after the meeting that many of the people opposing the occupation of flats were not even residents of the colony. ‘’It is a deliberate attempt to create problems and we see nothing more. No decision has been taken so far, we will work on it,’’ he said.
The petitioners fell on their knees before the Mayor, begging her to hear their side too. However, the Mayor said that the Corporation was only moving legally and that neither the Congress councillor of the area nor the petitioners was ready to oblige the law or to hear the sufferings of the 20 families.
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