390 Ahsraya houses built in Ullal in 2002 may soon give way to a park

Mangalore, June 14: It may be a case of entitlement delayed and denied for beneficiaries of low income group houses in Ullal near here as their 10-year wait for houses may not ever yield a positive outcome.

A total of 390 houses constructed over a nine-acre plot in 2002 under the Ashraya Scheme at Ombathukere in Ullal didn't see any occupation due to a decade-old court case over sanitary facilities in the area.

With hardly any takers for the project that seems to be jinxed by a cocktail of bad planning, superstition and snakes, officials in the Ullal Town Municipal Council (TMC) are now mulling over a proposal to convert the area into a lodge and a park.

“When we went to see the area, there were huge snakes. I shudder to think what will happen if people actually move into the colony,” said Kumari Bhavani, vice-president of the council. Moreover, she added that the area, which houses nine “sacred” lakes and the Rajarajeshwari temple, was also surrounded by local superstition which deterred many, including the landless, from applying for houses here.

“Instead, we thought we could build a lodge to house pilgrims of the temple, who come from across the State. Tourists would not have to deal with snakes on a daily basis, and the area that locals considered haunted can be turned into a park,” Ms. Bhavani said.

In the 10 years, through seasons of monsoon and summer, the walls have crumbled, roofs have caved in, and the mud floors are overrun by shrubs.

There are no sanitary lines, no doors, windows, power lines or roads, making the houses “unliveable”.

Even though, the court-ordered project of setting up an underground drainage network in the area, which also provides sanitary facilities to the houses, saw some progress recently, the fate of the project hangs in the balance.

Sheena Naik, Chief Officer of Ullal TMC, said the issue of what to do with the houses would be taken up only after completion of the Rs. 65.71-crore drainage project. “After the drainage work is completed, we will review details of the project. If we decide to continue, we may have to ask for additional funds and update the beneficiary list, which is 10 years old,” he said. Updating involved crosschecking whether beneficiaries were still in Ullal and were still living below poverty line, Mr. Naik added.

However, the authorities will face the problem of retrieving the list. With no official from 2002 still with the TMC, its president Basil D'Souza stated that the list was with the zilla panchayat, while panchayat officials claim to have nothing to do with the project. Officials at the Deputy Commissioner's office remained non-committal on the whereabouts of the decade-old list.

Stuck in the bureaucratic wrangle were the beneficiaries, most of whom, had given up, said Ms. Bhavani.

Sixty-year-old U.K. Hussain is an example of this. Having applied for a house a decade ago, the endless wait forced him out of Ullal and into Kumbala in Kasargod district in Kerala where he lives in a rented house.

“He has given up on the house, and moved out five years ago. Having had his leg amputated, he could not find work. Eventually, he had to move out as he could not afford the rent at Ullal,” said his brother U.K. Abdulla, who still represents his case here.