The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KSHRC chief visits leprosy centre after State refuses to renew lease

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KSHRC chief visits leprosy centre after State refuses to renew lease

Staff Reporter

From 63 acres, campus is expected to shrink to five acres

THIS IS HER HOME NOW:Chairperson of KSHRC SR Nayak visiting inmates of the Sumanahalli Solidarity Forum in Bangalore on Thursday

Bangalore: Ramaratnamma from Mulbagal, wife of a forest guard, barely remembers her home now. Affected by leprosy and also mentally unbalanced, this middle-aged woman was under the treatment of doctors at NIMHANS till she was moved to the Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Centre by her husband.

“My husband left me here a year ago. My family has disowned me and I'm living at this centre, where people like me are given treatment, proper care, shelter and food,” she told The Hindu on Thursday.

Ditto is the case of Malamma from Koppal, Thimmakka from Dharmapuri and Siddamma from Magadi Road. While they are happy at the centre, they are worried they may soon lose what they now regard as home. The State Government, which had allotted 63 acres on a 30-year lease to the Sumanahalli Solidarity Forum (SSF) in 1978 to run the centre, has now decided to take back the land as the lease expired in 2008.

Following several representations and requests to the Government by SSF members, the Government said it would re-allot five acres. Outraged SSF members then filed complaint with the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) seeking its intervention.

Rights violation

KSHRC Chairperson S.R. Nayak, who said he had registered the complaint, visited the centre on Thursday to see its functioning. “Although I'm aware that the 30-year lease period has expired, I've taken up this case as it involves the human rights of hundreds of leprosy affected, HIV and persons with disabilities who are staying in this centre,” Mr. Nayak said. “The Government's decision to take away the land is a violation of the rights of the poor and also of the minority community that runs the centre.”

Road widening

Of the 63 acres allotted to SSF, 13 was taken away a few years ago to widen the road skirting the campus to facilitate the construction of the Magadi Road flyover by the Bangalore Development Authority.

“Sumanahalli Solidarity Forum members, led by their director, Fr. George Kannanthanam, have appealed to the Government to renew the lease for the remaining 50 acres as they plan to expand their activities relating to treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy patients. They also run a primary school and a home for HIV-affected and persons with disabilities,” Mr. Nayak said.

“They have informed me in the complaint that in 1977, the then Chief Minister Devaraj Urs had requested the then Archbishop of Bangalore to start a centre for the care of leprosy-affected and other disabled persons. The campus has 45 structures, including some that came with the land,” he added.

The residents

Fr. Kannanthanam said the centre had 365 inmates, including 120 leprosy-affected, 40 HIV-affected and 30 persons with disabilities. “We have 250 children in the school and also provide vocational training to the inmates to rehabilitate them. We also get houses constructed for them and get them married too,” he said, and added that the residents would become homeless if the land was taken back.

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