Landslide Victims of Adimali's Laksham Veedu Nagar Protest for 11 Days, Demand Rehabilitation

Idukki: Families displaced by a landslide in Laksham Veedu Nagar, Adimali, Idukki, are being met with complete indifference by the UDF government even as they continue an 11-day protest, including with infants in arms, demanding implementation of the rehabilitation plan announced by the previous LDF government. They sit on agitation along a dangerous national highway without any safety arrangements.

Elected representatives — an MP and an MLA — who visited the protest site in recent days merely told them they had conveyed the matter to the concerned authorities and asked them to end the protest. The protestors say no concrete steps have been taken to resolve their demands. They say they will not be deceived with empty assurances again and will not step back until rehabilitation is implemented. Senior revenue officials pass by the protest site daily without stopping to hear their grievances, they added.

The Disaster

The landslide in Laksham Veedu Nagar occurred on October 25 last year. Eight houses were completely buried and one person was killed. Eight families are living in KSEB quarters and 17 families are in rented accommodation. The Laksham Veedu Samrakshana Samiti had earlier staged a protest before the contractor's yard. At that time, CPI(M) district secretary C V Varghese reached an understanding with the Collector to clear pending rent dues. Seven lakh rupees in arrears were handed over to the panchayat in the presence of then MLA Adv A Raja. Twenty-nine families were to be rehabilitated with insurance coverage. With the change of government, rent arrears have piled up and rehabilitation has been derailed.

Rs 10 Lakh Each

The previous government had sanctioned Rs 10 lakh per family for rehabilitation, directing the Collector to prepare a plan to find suitable land and build houses, with the panchayat tasked with identifying the land. Now there is no rent, no house and no land. Families who lost their homes entirely were sanctioned Rs 10 lakh as financial assistance. All affected families were also given a one-time grant of Rs 10,000 from the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund for clothing and utensils, and the order issued on Marchhad also approved monthly rent assistance from the same fund.

Collector's Report

The government had clarified that various forms of financial assistance would be disbursed once the Collector submitted a detailed report on the disaster victims. However, after the UDF government came to power, no follow-up action was taken on this, leaving rehabilitation completely in limbo. Families say the Collector's report recommends resettling the families in the same location — which has been declared a red zone and where cracks and landslide threats persist.