Title - Railway doubling work: Evictees approach High Court

Even three years after many families were displaced from their homes along the Mulanthuruthy-Kottayam, Harippad-Ambalappuzha sectors as part of doubling works, the railways are yet to provide them the compensatory jobs as per the job-for-land policy of the Indian railways.Fed up with the callousness shown by the authorities, the evictees have now approached the Kerala High Court seeking intervention in the matter.According to them, over 450 families, majority of who belong to the middle class income group, have been evicted along the once thickly populated belts, so that the railways could go ahead with the project which is considered as an answer to the rail bottlenecks in the state.“When acquisition procedures began in 2010 we were given ‘n’ number of promises, such as market price for our land as well as a permanent job in the railways.“Today, most of the families have been given less than the promised amount. Not even a single person has been given a railway job,” said a petitioner who moved the High Court, on conditions of anonymity.

“At least 360 families were displaced along the Mullanthuruthy-Piravom-Vaikom-Kurippunthura route alone,” he said.

In the Harippad-Ambalappuzha route, more than 100 families have been displaced so far. “The Railways asked us to move out of our land on promise of a job in the railways,” he added.

Suma from Ambalapuzha, whose land was acquired for the project and has been living at a rented house in Pathanamthitta since then, said, “I had to give away the only piece of land I had.

“For the last two years I have been walking up and down the Tahlsidar’s office, but to no avail,” Suma said.

Meanwhile, it is alleged that the Construction Wing of the T’Puram Division concerned with the task have not shown much interest in this regard. Chief Administrative Officer of the Railways, Kerala, was not available for comments.