Thiruvananthapuram Corporation retakes possession of unoccupied and rented out welfare scheme flats
The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has begun the process of retaking possession of flats built for economically backward families which have either been rented out to third parties or have remained unoccupied even years after they were handed over to beneficiaries.
According to officials in the Corporation's housing wing, 15 flats have been taken over until now and reallocated to families identified as landless and homeless under the State government's project to uplift extremely poor families.
Last week, it was to one such unoccupied flat that the Corporation had retaken possession of that the authorities shifted a four-member family found to be living in a dilapidated one room shed at Muttathara.
Survey and follow-up action
Officials said the Corporation had an year ago begun a survey to check whether the flats which were provided under various schemes for economically backward families are being occupied by the original beneficiaries to whom they were provided. As many as 60 flats were found to be either vacant or rented out to third parties. These were mainly in the residential complex built over a decade ago under the Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) project at Kalladimukham and another under the same project which was completed more recently at Poonkulam.
According to the officials, one of the reasons for some of the original beneficiaries not occupying these flats built under the old housing scheme could probably be its smaller size. These are one BHK apartments of 320 square feet area. Over the past year, the Corporation had served three notices to the beneficiaries. Following the notices, a few families had returned to their flats to stay. The Corporation has taken possession of the rest of the flats.
As many as 50 families in the Corporation identified as extremely poor are landless and homeless. Of them, 15 have now been provided flats by retaking possession from the original beneficiaries. The Corporation has been struggling to find adequate land in accessible areas to build residential complexes under the LIFE project too. This could partly explain the closer scrutiny of flats already awarded to beneficiaries.
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