100 Days On, No Construction Begins at Congress Housing Project for Wayanad Landslide Survivors

Kalpetta: A hundred days have passed since Congress laid a foundation stone for houses promised to survivors of the Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslide disaster, but not a single brick has been laid. At the three-acre coffee plantation purchased by Congress in Meppadi Kunnampatta — a site reportedly prone to wild elephant intrusion — nothing has moved forward beyond the digging of a well. The canopy erected for the February 26 foundation-laying ceremony, attended by Rahul Gandhi and local MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has long since been dismantled. Reports indicate that not even a construction permit application has been filed.

Congress had collected crores of rupees in public donations — running a campaign that actively undermined Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund collections — promising 230 houses to disaster victims. At the foundation-laying event, only 50 houses were ultimately announced, a figure significantly lower than the 100 houses each promised separately by Rahul Gandhi and the KPCC, plus 30 more by Youth Congress. Neither Rahul nor Priyanka contributed to the Chief Minister's rehabilitation fund; Priyanka stated that there was no obligation for MPs to channel funds through the government.

The entire exercise was electoral optics ahead of the assembly elections — a face-saving manoeuvre after sitting on the donated funds became politically untenable. Revenue Minister A P Anil Kumar recently said construction would begin "a little later," citing technical issues with the land.