The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is all set to take up the flat project for Scheduled Caste beneficiaries in two acres of land in Mannamoola, which has been at the centre of disputes for long. More than a hundred homeless SC families had pitched tents on the land in 2015, accusing the civic body of going slow on its plan for constructing houses for them.
Reason for protest
The Corporation had bought the land in 1998 using funds from a Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes (SCs). However, right from the early days, there has been a constant opposition to the project from the residents, who were against attempts at "setting up a colony" in the area. These protests led to the project being postponed multiple times. The SC families began a protest here in 2015, under the aegis of the Kerala Samyukta Bhoosamara Samithi, formed by a local leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
‘Only for the homeless’
Over the years, most of the original protesters have left the place, with only a handful of them remaining here. According to the Corporation authorities, there are now only 10 makeshift tents there. When the housing project was announced a couple of years ago, the remaining protesters had demanded that all of them should be given houses in the new flat complex. However, the civic body has maintained a stand that only homeless SC families belonging to Thiruvananthapuram city can be provided houses.
The Corporation has held multiple rounds of meetings with the protesters to convey this. Though it had gone ahead with a tender a few months back, no one had responded. The civic body has now invited a fresh tender for construction in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode.
From the scratch
"Usually, the Corporation prepares the design, estimates, gets the sanctions and issues the tender call. Now, the company taking up the tender has to do all of it from scratch, as a lot of time can be saved that way. We have funds from the SC Development department for the construction of the flats," said a Corporation official.
