15 years on, no succour for Moolampilly evictees

A total of 33 people have died waiting for justice and the youth never got the jobs promised by the government 15 years after 316 families were evicted from their holdings to make way for road-rail connectivity for the Vallarpadam project. Most plots allocated for their rehabilitation remain unsuitable for construction

Some years ago, Flevin Pannkal, then a 30-year-old, was waved down by the police on Container Terminal Road in Kochi city. A young man, who hitched a ride on Flevin’s bike, was not wearing a helmet and Flevin was slapped with a fine. 

The incident triggered the deep-seated revulsion he had for the police force. It stemmed from the tragic memories of February 6, 2008. On that day, Flevin’s house, along with that of ten other families at Moolampilly, was demolished by the State with a posse of police standing guard. The families were being displaced for providing rail and road connectivity to the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), Vallarpadam.  

Flevin was at his mother’s workplace at Irinjalakuda when he watched the live visuals of that forcible eviction and demolition of houses on news channels. “At that point, I was scared of the police. But over time, I have grown to severely dislike injustice. So, when I was fined for a petty traffic offence, I thought I would pay the fine but would never forget the February morning when we were rendered homeless,” he says.

That his grandfather Celestine Master, a social worker who tirelessly worked for the people of Moolampilly, died nursing the unhealed scars from that fateful day has only accentuated his sense of being wronged.  

Fifteen years after 316 families lost their land and homes across seven villages and a rehabilitation package, known as the Moolampilly package, was notified, that sense of injustice has only grown.

The youths can hardly forget the event that changed their lives forever having seen how their parents and dear ones suffered, and continue to do so till date. That the government order assuring a job based on educational qualification to one member from each family in the ICTT project has remained unfulfilled indicates that they will not forget anything at all.  

Sujamol, who lives along with her mother at a house at Cheranalloor that was left shapeless after the hall and portico were demolished as part of the acquisition, still cannot shake off how her father Sadasivan died an emotionally shattered man early this year.