Udupi: As many as 23 Koraga families living at the Kondadi Koraga colony are now hoping for justice as the Lokayukta has decided to probe into the alleged scam around the colony.
Dr. Ravindranath Shanbaug, President of Human Rights Protection Foundation has said that 23 families of Koraga community, who have been running from pillar to post to get the possession of the sites allotted to them nine-year-ago have still not received any solace. Recently, Karnataka Lokayukta has initiated an enquiry of Kondadi Koraga Colony scam on the basis of a complaint filed by the site applicants.
“The state government had announced the scheme way back in 2010, to uplift the backward tribal communities, locally known as Koragas. The Department concerned identified different government lands for the said purpose and ultimately, selected 2.61 acres of land in survey no. 229 of Bommarabettu village in Udupi and 23 families of Koraga community were selected for this tiny residential colony. On the Independence Day in 2011, the District Minister and MLAs allotment letters were handed over to these hapless backward families,” he said adding that ever since, these allottees are roaming from pillar to post, to take possession of the allotted piece of land but with little success.
Even though they knew the Survey number of the allotted land they could not trace out the site allotted to them and had to approach the in-charge officer of the project on several occasions. There were no roads or any other amenities available there, the residents of the colony complained.
In 2012 the allottees were informed that the government had sanctioned Rs.1.5 lakhs for levelling the uneven land allotted for this project. It was also reported that Rs.97,000 out of this had also been released by the Authorities. But no work worth mentioning was undertaken on the land.
Koraga families who received the allotment letters approached the Ministers and other people’s representatives several times in this connection apart from approaching the district authorities, but to no avail. Whenever approached, these dignitaries were only directing the officials to do the needful without even counter checking whether the instructions have been implemented or not, said Dr Shanbhaug.
Again in 2013-14, there were reports of the release of a further Rs.3 lakhs for the same cause. But the outcome of all these sanctions and releases is little known to the allottees. Again in 2018 Rs 50 lakhs was sanctioned and released to provide infrastructure such as road, water, electricity and drainage. But even to this date none of the amenities have been provided, he added.
In these circumstances, that recently the Lokayukta of Karnataka has issued a notice to the officials of Integrated Trible Development Project (ITDP) asking for the explanation to the complaint received from Koragas. A detailed investigation only shall reveal the complete factual position.
