In the concluding part of our five-part series, mid-day takes a look at the new place that the survivors will soon call home
Malin: Two years after the landslide destroyed Malin village, the government is still in the process of building new houses for the surviving villagers. Officials said it took them a long time just to zero in on Asane village, 10 kilometres away from Malin, where it has procured 35 kilometres of land that had been reserved for cattle grazing. Here 67 houses will be built, each measuring 420 sq feet.
The signboard at Asane announcing the spot where the Malin villagers will be rehabilitated
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The government searched seven villages nearby for land suitable enough to rehabilitate the villagers. It was only after the Geological Survey of India gave the go-ahead that the land at Asane was chosen.
Work has begun and the houses will be in clusters of two. Individual houses will measure 420 sq ft
'Will be ready by Diwali'
Work on the project began in August 2015 and was slated to be completed in February 2016. But, officials said, it would now be completed by Diwali this year. The delay, officials said, was because when workers were digging in the ground, at most spots they found only soft soil even 15 feet into the ground. Hard rock is required to be found at least three feet into the ground for the houses to have a solid base. This meant that the dug-up trenches had to be covered up and a new spot found for digging. This took up a lot of time, government officials said.
The empty plot where the houses will come up overlooks fields and hills
An official present at the rehabilitation site at Asane village said, “We are working day and night on completing this project. The soil here is very soft and despite digging around 10-15 feet we find only soft soil, so we have to cover it up and start in another spot all over again. We will hopefully finish work by October or November.”
There will be 18 amenities provided to the residents here, such as a school, village panchayat hall, a temple, electricity, running water, storm water drains and a common space for keeping cattle. According to officials from the Collector’s office, the cost of construction for each house is R4 lakh, of which Rs 2 lakh has come from the government and the other R2 lakh from various rehabilitation schemes and NGO donations.
Villagers unhappy
Malin villagers are, however, not happy with the new arrangements.
Kishor Zanjare (36) said, “Our old house in Malin measured 2,000 square feet and four families lived there. Now the government wants four families to fit into one 420 sq ft house. We asked for one house per family but they flatly refused. This is a gross injustice.”
Seventy-year-old Sitabai Virnak said, “I lost five members of my family in the landslide, yet I got just one tiny house in the new plot. We had three houses totally measuring 15,000 sq ft. I asked the government for one more house for my surviving son and his family, but the government said they could not do so. Where will I keep my cattle in the tiny house?”
Rajendra Muthe, Resident District Collector (RDC), said, “The allotment of the houses is being done as per the records with the gram panchayat. Houses not mentioned in the records would mean that villagers had encroached on the space, making them illegal. We cannot give houses if records of a previous one do not exist.”
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