“Today you can get from Kalamassery to the Kerala High Court in 20 to 30 minutes. We gave up our houses for the good of the people and I’m happy to be of service, but our sacrifice was met with violence and years of indifference,” says 69-year-old George AL. George’s family was among the 316 families evicted in 2008 for constructing National Highway 966A in Kochi.
The Kerala government had carried out the eviction over nine village panchayats in order to build the four-lane highway connecting the Cochin Port to National Highway 544. However, the rehabilitation package announced has not been received in full by any of the affected people.
While all the families have been allotted land on record, 192 of the allotted plots are uninhabitable. A large number of plots are allotted in marshy areas where construction is not possible. Further, none of 316 families have received a job promised to them by the Cochin Port Authority. The government also promised rent of Rs 5,000 until they move into their own homes. This promise also lapsed after two years of the evictions, despite most families being unable to move into permanent houses.
Last month, the Ernakulam district administration decided to refill the marshland allotted to the evictees so that house construction can start. Eighteen years after being thrown out of their homes, this is too little too late for the evictees.
The 17-km long NH 966A does not technically connect two states but has received the ‘national highway’ designation nevertheless. It connects the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam with Kalamassery on NH 544 and was built to facilitate easy transport of containers arriving at the ICTT. This was done as per a stipulation in a contract signed with Dubai Port World, the multinational shipping conglomerate that currently operates the ICTT. The contract also asked for a railway line which also led to evictions.
Following the signing of this contract in 2008, hurried demolition of houses was carried out.
On February 6, 2008, a large police force assembled in Moolampilly, a small island in the Kadamakkudy cluster of islands in the Periyar river. They had orders to clear the people and houses in the area.
As police gathered, people who attempted to call their representatives found that MLAs and others had switched off their phones.
“All the families whose houses were set for demolition had gathered at the house of the protest committee head, PJ Celestin. The police attempted to disconnect the electricity at the house. Celestin’s son attempted to stop them. The police reacted violently,” says Sebastian Thannikkot, a reporter for the Malayalam daily Mangalam, who was present there.
When the police brought an excavator, its wheels got stuck in the mud at which point men with hammers were employed to manually break down the house.
Eventually, they destroyed the house after dragging away the 10 families who had gathered inside.
Subsequent protests at other spots in Kochi witnessed dramatic scenes, including lathi charge.
It took 45 days of protest, which included a self-immolation attempt, before the government came out with a rehabilitation package for the affected families.
Talking to short film-maker Sreemith after the protest, Celestin had said, “The government managed to convince the general public that those who opposed the project are actually opposers of progress and development.” He said this resulted in people not sympathising with their cause.
Celestin, or Celestin master as he was affectionately known, passed away in 2018.
The promised package
The Moolampilly Package for rehabilitation promised 5-6 cents of land; a single time settlement based on the market price of the land; Rs 5,000 a month as rent until the families were resettled; and a moving fee of Rs 10,000. The Cochin Port promised one member from each of the families jobs based on their educational qualifications.
The Kerala High Court had in July 2008 directed the government to ensure that plots provided to families should be suitable for two-storey houses and must have electricity and water connections.
Land was allotted to the families as per the package, however, the Moolampilly Rehabilitation Package Coordination Committee states that 118 plots in Thuthiyoor, 56 plots in Adarsh Nagar, 14 plots in Mulavukaad, and 4 plots in Vaduthala are uninhabitable. This is in direct contravention of the 2008 High Court order regarding the quality of land provided.
The coordination committee was organised to lead protests against the NH. Now it is engaged in attempts to get the rehabilitation package properly distributed.
“52 persons have passed away without enjoying the actual benefits of the Moolampilly package. Two were suicides connected with the eviction and acquisition of their land,” says Father Francis Kalathungal, general convenor of the committee.
“After three years of going from office to office trying to clear the tax penalty charged on the rehabilitation amount, I lost all hope. One day at the Income Tax Office, I broke down and told them I would throw myself off the fifth floor of the building. It was only after that, that my money was cleared,” George says. He was a daily wage worker.
The evicted families have been living scattered across the city, often around the container road itself. Most of them have been living in rented houses ever since their eviction 18 years ago.
Sixty-one-year-old Sabu KN is one such evictee; his land in Edappally was taken for the railway line. Sabu has been moving from house to house with his family of four. Once a fisherman, he is now a daily wage worker.
“I know my plot number is 34 but I couldn’t tell you where it is now. The boundary stones are gone,” Sabu says. His land lies somewhere among the 118 plots allotted in Thuthiyoor, a marshy area unfit for construction.
A memorandum from the coordination committee points out that the Revenue Department had not provided clear sketches for the 118 plots in Indira Nagar, another resettlement site in Thuthiyoor. It also states that there have been instances in which multiple families were allotted the same plots.
All the families still pay land tax for a plot that many are still unable to identify.
“I was studying in Class 5 when the evictions happened. Today I’m 30. My primary need was a house,” says Anitha Rajan.
Anitha was evicted along with her mother Anna Lakshmi from Edappally. It was only after construction started that Anna realised that the village office had made an error in marking plots and that she was building on someone else’s plot.
The issue was sorted out through arbitration with another recipient, Praveen Chacko.
Anitha now finds that construction on the land is extremely costly. “Soil testing showed that solid ground is 17 m below the surface. Only waste surfaces when we dig,” she says.
Praveen Chacko, who lived with his mother in Eloor, near the start of the NH, before the eviction, lost 9.5 cents of land and their home to the road. When he tried to get the land re-registered after his mother’s death, he discovered the labelling error. He spent the next year going from government office to office to fix it.
Praveen now lives alone at a paying guest accommodation in Kakkanad, 15 km from Eloor. He teaches at an IELTS institute and offers home tuitions.
No family has gotten the promised job. For some, it would be a lifeline.
“My son Jobson is the only earner in the family since my husband suffered a stroke back in 2023. The promised job would be a big help for us right now,” says Salomi Sartho.
Her family has also been allotted a plot in Thuthiyoor. Joseph Sartho, her husband, was a daily wage worker but has been unable to work after the stroke. His medical expenses have also impacted the family in a big way. Joseph has suffered multiple health emergencies in the past. When the latest stroke came, in July this year, he refused to seek medical help citing costs.
Jobson is a graduate and eligible for the promised job. Currently he works as a trainee with a tyre manufacturer, earning a monthly salary of Rs 15,000.
In 2011, the government formed a Moolampilly monitoring committee chaired by the Collector, and including the heads of the PWD, Water Authority, electricity board, representatives of local self government, and members of the Moolampilly Coordination Committee.
The monitoring committee meeting held on July 31 decided to form an executive committee headed by the Executive Engineer of the PWD and consisting of representatives of the Cochin Port Trust and the Revenue Department along with one representative of the Moolampilly Coordination Committee.
The protest committee says that no timeline has been given so far, for the refilling of the marshland.
The 15-point memorandum submitted to the monitoring committee makes a number of complaints including that the IT Department has sought penalties for non-payment on taxes upon the rehabilitation amount received by the evictees. The district administration has directed the Port Trust to write a letter to the Central Income tax Department to address this.
In another instance, the memorandum says that the Mulavukaad Police station was using rehabilitation land allotted in the area for storing seized evidentiary material. The district administration on July 31 directed the removal of these materials within two weeks.
District officials, including the Collector, have made visits to the land following the announcement, leading many to be hopeful. But the administration has not yet provided a concrete timeline of action.
“The package was announced almost 18 years ago, multiple governments have come and gone and nothing has changed. It is a hopeful development that the government has announced some action. We are hopeful but also cautious,” Praveen says.
TNM attempted to contact Ernakulam District Collector Priyanka G for comment. This report will be updated if and when we receive a response.
Views expressed are the author's own.