Life Mission complex: Project derailed due to flurry of corruption cases

Thrissur: The weed-filled Life Mission complex at Charalparambu in Wadakkancherry lies like a ghost house and a mnemonic of corruption. The concrete pillars of the 140 flats bend their ‘heads down’ as a sign of maladministration. The money so far spent has been wasted.

The flat was allegedly constructed by diverting the fund allotted by the Red Crescent Society for rehabilitating flood victims to the Life Mission. It slipped from the track from the beginning itself due to the rule that the State cannot accept foreign funds directly.

The then MLA Anil Akkara had said that six families in Wadakkancherry constituency had lost their houses in the floods and they were given new houses too. So, beneficiaries have to be identified from the Life Mission list itself. Since it was a rehabilitation project for the flood-affected, work on the health center, which was not included in the Life Mission project, was also started.

During the gold smuggling case investigation, a sum of Rs 1 crore was found in the joint bank locker of Swapna Suresh and the Chartered Accountant of M Sivasankar. It was later identified that this money was drawn from the account of Santosh Eapen who undertook the construction of the Life Mission flats at Wadakkancherry. These developments landed the project in the shadow of corruption.

The investigation revealed that the corruption tuned to Rs 5 crore, and a sum of Rs 4 crore was converted into dollars and smuggled out. A flurry of cases followed and the project got derailed. By this time, the pillars of the building and the concrete work of four storeys were completed and the wall work started.