The woes of fishermen families languishing at Valiyathura Govt Regional Technical and Vocational Fisheries High School due to coastal erosion will soon be over. Fisheries minister Mercykutty Amma promised to complete the rehabilitation process within the current financial year. The minister said this in an official reply to V S Sivakumar MLA, who raised the issue in the assembly, after TOI reported the miserable existence of people at the relief camp on Wednesday. Around 117 people have been camped in the three relief camps opened at Govt LPGS, Govt UP School and Fisheries High School after losing their homes in sea erosion in 2013. Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar K R Manikandan, the convener of the committee constituted to conduct a feasibility study, said that villages officers of Muttathara and Pettah will soon submit the list of deserving people who lost homes. “The list will be cross-checked with the list submitted by councillors and other unions. Once it is completed, the construction process will begin at the sewage farm, where 3.5 acres of land have been allotted to construct houses for the victims. An amount of Rs 148 crore has been allotted by the previous government for the rehabilitation but the confirmation is yet to be announced. But we expect to complete the rehabilitation process before March 2017 as the minister has given strict orders,” he said. Sivakumar said that the government is unnecessarily delaying the implementation of the project approved in 2015. “The decision to complete the process sounds hopeful. I expect the minister to fulfil the promise as the victims have already suffered enough. The protest by sewage farm workers must be resolved as it will slow down the process. No action has been taken by the officials yet to address this issue,” he said. Meanwhile, Mercykutty Amma said that directives have been given to district collector to convene a meeting with the workers of Muttathara sewage farm to solve the issues regarding the land survey.
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