A Malayali family living in a house built under the Life Mission scheme at Ettekkar near Cumbummettu in the Idukki district has accused the Tamil Nadu Forest Department of staking a claim to their property.
The four-member family, which lives on the 10-cent property along the Cumbummettu-Vannapuram Hill Highway, has filed a complaint with the Karunapuram Village Office in Idukki. They have alleged that officials from the TN Forest Department threatened them to vacate.
“We have been living here since 2004. The land was bought from a native of Cumbummettu. The house was given under the Life Mission scheme four years ago,” said Eliyamma, who lives in the two-room house with her two children and father, Surendran. In 2020, the Kerala government provided the family a home in the name of Surendran's wife, Achamma. She died last year.
“The officers who came threatened my father. They came three times to our house. One day at 6 in the morning and twice after 5 in the evening. My father is from Tamil Nadu, and my mother was from Kerala,” Eliyamma said.
The Kumily Tahasildar has sought a survey report based on Eliyamma's complaint. According to Pradeep T A, Village Officer of Karunapuram, the family's property falls under its jurisdiction. The Karunapuram panchayat has allotted house number 675 in its 9th ward.
The family has a possession certificate but no 'pattayam'. Eliyamma applied for one, but ward member Vincy said there was a legal barrier as the house was built under the Life Mission scheme, a flagship project of the state government that aims to provide housing for landless families.
The house has two small rooms, a kitchen and a narrow verandah. Surendran sells stationery items out of a corner of the house, but the family's primary source of income is a tailor shop Eliyamma operates in a shed attached to the house.