Kerala: Beneficiaries bear the brunt as housing scheme moves at snail’s pace

For the 73-year-old Pathanamthitta resident, his biggest dream was to own a durable house where he could live out his sunset years and nurse his 69-year-old wife back to health, who has been paralysed for over a year following a stroke.

For years, the couple lived in a shed-like structure with a tin roof on a patch of 0.099 acre of land which they owned in a corner of Omalloor panchayat in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. During the monsoon, the rainwater would seep into the shed. With no access to the main road and only a set of muddy steps to guide, the route to their shed which is surrounded by rubber plantations, only added to their troubles.

The situation worsened after the woman was paralysed in 2022. The task of taking her to the hospital became more arduous. “That’s when I got my mother to live with me... I asked my father to move in as well but he was stubborn about lighting the prayer lamp in the evening and spending the night in the shed,” said the couple’s daughter, who is a nurse at a private hospital in Pathanamthitta, and lives a few kilometres away with her husband and children at a rented accommodation.

In 2022, the man was added as a beneficiary of the Life Mission project, a flagship housing scheme of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government under which ₹4 lakh is given as aid in instalments for the construction of a house. The scheme is structured in such a way that ₹ 1 lakh comes from the state government, ₹2.2 lakh is allotted in the form of a loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for which the local body pays the principal and the state government pays the interest and finally ₹80,000 from the plan funds of the respective local bodies.

As soon as his name was added to the list, the victim’s family scrambled to sell a few pieces of jewellery to put together ₹1 lakh and signed an agreement with a contractor to get a modest one-BHK home built within ₹5 lakh.

According to the scheme’s provisions, each instalment of the total fund is released based on the real-time construction of the house. While the man received the first two instalments from the local Omalloor panchayat on time and started the construction, the third tranche of funds got indefinitely delayed, putting a spanner in his plans. While the funds were scheduled to be disbursed by July, there was no word regarding the same even by October. The couple’s hopes to have a new house by Onam in late August this year were majorly hit.

“When I asked him about the pending funds, he said the panchayat officials are not giving a clear answer on the reasons behind the delay and when the next instalment was expected. I told him not to worry about it as it will come when it has to,” said the daughter. But on November 11, the man’s patience and hope both ran out.

That morning, he died by suicide by immolating himself on the road beside the under-construction house, according to the police. Later, locals informed the police about the body on the side of the road. A suicide note, placed in a plastic pouch near the body, read, “A person who failed in life does not deserve to live. Hence, I am leaving. The construction of the house has reached nowhere. Due to paucity of funds, even the roof of the house has not been erected and its already Onam. Please forgive me.”

Breaking down into tears, the couple’s daughter recalled: “I had spoken to him the previous night over the phone and had asked him to buy some vegetables when he came home. He said yes and sounded okay. There was no indication in his voice that he was disturbed and was planning to do something like this. He was a father who always kept his pain and sadness to himself.”

With regard to the pending dues, she said, “My father said the panchayat officials told him that no money has come for the project. He perhaps thought that the funds would never come and that his dream of a home would remain unfulfilled.”

An official who oversees the housing scheme at the Omalloor panchayat on the condition of anonymity said there was a delay in release of funds from HUDCO due to a “software glitch”. “We were told that there was a software glitch with respect to the list of beneficiaries at the end of HUDCO. The old list of those who already got the funds had to be replaced with the new list which led to a slight delay. If only he would have waited for a bit more, he could have got the latest instalment,” she said.

But this is not an isolated incident. In the neighbouring panchayat of Pramadom, 72-year-old Radhamma, another beneficiary of the Life Mission project, is also waiting for government funds.

“I have got ₹ 2 lakh from the panchayat so far and need another ₹2 lakh. My children have borrowed ₹1 lakh from a private money lender which has to be paid back as well. I am a widow living on government pension. I don’t know what to do if the funds never come,” said Radhamma.

The walls of her one-bedroom home under construction have gathered moss due to the rain and the plastering work has not even begun. “If they can just release some funds and finish the basic structure of the house, I will start live in it somehow. The panchayat is saying that no money is available right now,” said Radhamma.

Across Kerala, thousands of beneficiaries of the flagship housing scheme are in despair with many having piled up debt like Radhamma to finish building their homes in the absence of funds. While some officials laid the blame on HUDCO, others pointed to the state’s acute financial crunch.

Government data attests the slow pace of the housing scheme. As per data on Planspace, a government portal that tracks real-time implementation of schemes, only 3.97% funds allocated this year for the Life Mission project in rural areas have been spent so far. In the scheme outlay for urban areas, the spending is even less at 2.17%, according to the data. Overall, the financial progress of the scheme, for which ₹ 717 crore has been allocated in the state budget this year, stands at a mere 3.49%, according to the data.

However, CEO of Life Mission, PB Nooh said that the target of 71000 homes in the current financial year will be met as the budget allocation for the scheme has been released along with receipt of ₹430 crore in the form of loans from HUDCO, a public sector firm.

“There was a processing delay on the part of HUDCO in releasing the loan amount to the local bodies. The funds have come in now. Also, the amount allocated as part of the budget has been released as well. Both these funds will be spent quickly,” said the IAS officer. He added that the state’s financial crisis has not affected the implementation of the housing scheme.

The testimonies from chiefs of the local bodies however state otherwise.

VS Akbar, president of the Mulavukad panchayat in Ernakulam district, said, “The state is not releasing funds for the scheme and a lot of people in our panchayat are waiting for the fresh tranche of the allocation. Some have built a foundation and are waiting while others are borrowing money and are under debt to finish their homes. The government is asking panchayats to spend their own funds for these projects.”

Another panchayat president, who did not want to be identified, said, “There is a treasury ban and all bills above ₹1 lakh are not being cleared. Apart from Life Mission, funds for the road projects have also not come in.”

Back in Omalloor, the work on the victim’s house has restarted after a local TV network donated ₹2 lakh to his family and the panchayat released the third instalment of ₹60,000.

While a slew of political leaders including local MLA and health minister Veena George met the couple’s daughter and promised help, no assistance has come in so far. “She said that she will try to get some sponsors to get the house built. But there has been no word from her ever since,” said the daughter.

For her, the idea of owning a home has lost its attraction, knowing that her father took his life to realise it.