Every monsoon we are promised new houses but nothing materialises, says Narikurava community at Sakkimangalam

About 200 houses built in 1991 under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) scheme, have become dilapidated due to improper maintenance

The demand to reconstruct houses of members belonging to the Narikurava community – a nomadic tribe included in Scheduled Tribes (ST) list recently – at Sakkimangalam in Madurai district has remained unheard for more than eight years now.  

About 200 houses built in 1991 under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) scheme, have become dilapidated due to improper maintenance. Though the people have carried out minor repairs, they have been unable to do major renovation works owing to their economic condition.  

One of the residents, M. Jaiganesh, said, they have been struggling reconstruct the houses as the roofs and walls have started crumbling from 2015 itself. 

“As a remedial measure, the local body since 2016 has been asking us to stay in community halls during monsoon season to avoid any fatal incidents,” he added.  

Another resident, Ammu Sathyaraj, spent about ₹60,000 to repair the roof of her house that had collapsed a week ago. She said, “When such damages occur, instead of spending thousands of rupees on repair we prefer sharing houses with our neighbours who also happen to be our relatives. But, as almost all houses have more people than can be contained, we are forced to borrow money from an individual at an unaffordable interest rate,” she said.  

When part of the roof fell off, thankfully there were no one inside, otherwise, it would have ended in a tragedy, she said. 

In other houses too, the walls have been damaged during the recent heavy downpour, she added.  

Ms. Sathyaraj said, though it was a testing time for them, they do not want to move there whenever it rained as a stop-gap arrangement. 

“Every year in the last 10 years, local body officials rightly show up during the monsoon season and take note of the damaged houses saying they were going to reconstruct their houses once the rains are over,” she noted.  

Pandidurai, a resident said, “we believed that they were really noting down the details of the residents for providing them alternative houses, but only later we realised it was just to avoid fatal incidents during rains as the onus is on them to protect us.”

“Fearing the blame they would have to bear for any accidents, they try to safeguard without providing any permanent solutions,” he noted.  

A Madurai East block official said they were noting down the damaged houses to shift them to the community halls. “The data would be used to provide them with new houses. Once the houses are sanctioned for them, their houses will either be renovated or repaired,” the official added.  

Published - October 20, 2024 06:40 pm IST