Eight new houses for Koraga families, who were displaced in 2009 at Nantoor, were inaugurated in Mangaluru on Sunday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement more-in About two kilometres away from the NH connecting Manglauru and Moodbidri, Vasanti, a labourer, is happy to be at her new house in Kotemura in Kulashekara. “Yes, it is away from the highway. There are problems with the supply of water. But these problems do not matter much before the joy of living in your own house,” Ms. Vasanti said. Ms. Vasanti and her family are among eight families of the tribal Koraga community who were displaced from government land in Nantoor’s High Point area in 2009 for the widening of the NH 66. Following their fight, championed by the Karnataka Aadivasi Hakkugala Samanvaya Samiti, these families now have eight houses in 550 square foot of government land. “Each of us spent ?1 lakh, while the government gave us ?3 lakh each. The samiti collected the remaining amount from donors. We are really happy to be in our own house,” said labourer Shekar, who is another beneficiary. Mr. Shekar was living in a rented accommodation in Kulashekara, while Ms. Vasanti and her family lived in Moodshedde. Krishnappa Konchady, co-convener of the samiti, said that following failure of the government to construct houses the samiti had approached the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Following an order by the commission, each displaced family started getting rent since 2013. Mr. Konchady said that the samiti had to do a prolonged fight for allocation of the government land in December 2016. The samiti had to prevail upon the Mangluru City Corporation to level the undulated terrain to enable construction of houses. It took about 15 months to construct eight two-bedroom houses. “These houses are small and the quality is the same as that constructed by a private builder,” said Roy Castelino, a builder and the former president of the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Parishad. Mr. Castelino, S.Y. Gurushant, another co-convener of the samiti, and Muneer Katipalla, State president of Democratic Youth Federation of India, were among those who participated in the ceremony to hand over keys of the new houses to the beneficiaries on Sunday.

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