People’s panels to help convince fishers on housing scheme

Fishers reluctant to accept ‘inadequate’ Punargeham package offered by Kerala govt.

With sea erosion on the rise and fisher families increasingly reluctant to relocate to safer locations, the Fisheries Department has decided to form new people’s committees, with the help of local bodies, under the ‘Punargeham’ project to speed up its implementation. In the first phase, the new committees will come up on in Beypore and Kadalundi coastal areas. Under the project, a family will be given ₹10 lakh in various stages to purchase three cents of land away from the coast and build a 600-sq ft house. Though it was launched years go, less than 25% of the eligible families have cooperated with its implementation. Most are not keen on accepting the package as such. The responsibility of the new committee will be to identify such families and prompt them to cooperate with the project. In Kozhikode district, 2,606 families have been identified as requiring speedy rehabilitation. Of this, less than 600 families have accepted the package. Many say the package does not meet their actual requirements.