Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam   

Fishermen wary of moving into permanent houses

K. Subramanian

Beneficiaries say many of their needs cannot be met there

NEAR AND FAMILIAR: Thatched houses back at Keechankuppam.

NAGAPATTINAM: While the district administration and the tsunami relief and rehabilitation agencies are urging the non-governmental organistions to expedite construction of permanent houses to complete them by the end of next month for handing over to the tsunami victims, fishermen in several areas are reluctant to occupy the houses allotted to them.

The district administration has its hand full with numerous problems — construction of permanent houses, shifting the tsunami victims from the temporary shelters, and solving the unhygienic conditions in the houses being built by the NGOs before handing them over to the beneficiaries.

The inordinate delay of more than nine months by the Government after the tsunami to take a decision in selecting suitable land for construction of permanent houses within the 500-metre coastal regulatory zone and the hurried approval for about 10 designs of houses without proper planning for toilets are cited as factors that led to the problems.

Collector Tenkasi S. Jawahar had said that more than 8,000 permanent houses had been constructed and handed over to beneficiaries out of the target of 18,200 houses. The remaining houses would be completed by the end of next month.

M.K. Stalin, Minister for Local Administration, is expected to hand over nearly 1,000 permanent houses, including about 800 houses built by Tata Relief Committee, in Nagapattinam on April 28.

What is worrying is that the tsunami-affected fishermen in several hamlets have not occupied the houses handed over to them in the last six months and they still live near the shore by reconstructing their houses that were ravaged by the tsunami.

A cross-section of fishermen said that they would occupy the houses only if all the families were allotted one. Besides, the district administration did not take proper enumeration of families that were affected by the tsunami, resulting in construction of less number of houses than required. The design of the houses were also not found suitable to the fishermen. The houses were built far away from the shore and the fishermen cannot reach the shore carrying their nets and other paraphernalia in the early hours for venturing into the sea. Infrastructure such as roads, drainage and water supply are also said to be unsatisfactory.

According to R.M.P. Rajendiran Nattar of Keechankuppam, vice-president of Tamil Nadu Meenavar Peravai, an NGO had constructed apartment-like houses for fishermen at Keechankuppam and another NGO did not provide ventilation in the kitchen in the individual houses built by them.

He pointed out that no fisherman would prefer to stay in such houses as they could not clean nets, drying of fish etc besides conducting functions such as marriage or funeral.

More than 50 per cent of the beneficiaries are yet to move into the permanent houses allotted to them in Nagapattinam, Tarangampadi, Keechankuppam and Velankanni area.

Fishermen from several areas are also giving petitions to the Collector to increase the number of houses stating that many girls and boys got married after the tsunami in the last two-and-half years and they should be provided separate houses.

Another issue

Meanwhile, a private engineering college in Nagapattinam that gave its land in Thethi for putting up 100 temporary shelters at the time of tsunami to the Government is not able to get back its land even after the inmates of the temporary shelters moved to permanent houses recently. Immediately after the departure of the inmates of the temporary shelters to the permanent houses, another 100 families from some unknown place have occupied them and refused to move out.

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