Houses for Tiruvannamalai Irulas to be a reality by year-end

Speaking to DT Next, the Collector said, “As a part of the first phase, the construction of 43 houses for the community will over soon on a 110-acre site, where we plan to build another 100 houses. The area will have an anganwadi, school, marriage hall, roads, street lights, toilets and drinking water facilities.”

However, what differentiates it from the DMK-built Samathuvapurams is that each house will be provided a milch animal and a cooperative milk society would be formed in the area along with arrangements to convey the milk to the chilling centre in Tiruvannamalai town, Kandasamy added.

“The cow dung generated would be used to fuel a biogas plant, which is planned for the housing colony. Also, 150 fruit trees of various species would be provided under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) to ensure that the residents were totally self-reliant,” Kandasamy averred. “The entire scheme, which was a first in the state, was expected to fully functional in three to four months” he added.

Similarly, 54 Irula and 27 gypsy families would be provided government housing at Thachur village in Arni panchayat union, Kandasamy said, adding, “The district administration has forwarded to the state government a scheme to open residential schools for Irulas at Arni, Cheyyar and Thandarampattu where they were in sizeable numbers.”

Meanwhile, at a special grievances day meeting for Irulas and gypsies at Triuvannamalai on Thursday, he handed over a community certificate to R Soundarya of the snake-catchers’ community, while he handed over Rs 20,000 from his discretionary funds to one Indira to set up a small shop in her house in Annamalaipuram in Tiruvannamalai taluk.