‘Smart Colony’ for Irulas abandoned for over a year

CHENNAI: A year has gone by since houses for members of the Irula community came up at the “Smart Colony” at Misanallur village in Tiruvannamalai district but the project has been put on the backburner since then.

The project to build houses for 43 Irula families at Misanallur in Vandavasi taluk took off in August 2016. The houses were constructed on 6.2 acres at ?2.07 crore. Of this, ?1.59 crore was allotted from the Union Ministry of Tribal Welfare under Particular Vulnerable Tribal Group Scheme.

Abdulkalam Puram, conceived by then sub-collector of Cheyyar Prabhu Shankar, was aimed at developing a self-sufficient colony providing a sustainable livelihood for the Irulas. Some of its prominent features were solar-powered street lights, an anganwadi centre, biogas plants and a large community hall. “Giving away milch cows and establishing a cooperative milk society within the premises are also part of the project,” said an official.

But the irony is that the 43 families, who wer to move into these houses, are still living on the bunds of water bodies on the outskirts of Misanallur, Thellar, Nadukuppam, Embalam and Eripattu in Cheyyar taluk.

After 90% of the work, including construction of houses, was completed a year ago, the project was abandoned. “When the project took off, it was planned that the houses will be handed over to the Irula families on the occasion of Pongal in 2017. But, the families are still living in thatched houses near water bodies in and around Misanallur,” said a source quoting one of the beneficiaries.

Surprisingly, sources said, collector K S Kandasamy was unaware of such a project in the district until recently. “The project was started with A Gnanasekaran was the collector and almost completed when Prashant M Wadnere was collector. The present collector K S Kandasamy was kept in the dark about the project,” an official source said. It was revived after Kandasamy was informed about the project recently.

Kandasamy said, “We have taken up work to lay an approach road to the colony. We are also working on road work inside the colony. The work will be completed within a week or 10 days. Once the work is completed, we will relocate beneficiaries to the residential colony.”