The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has directed the District Collector and the Fisheries Director to provide permanent accommodation without delay for 43 fisher families living in a disaster relief camp at St. Roch’s school here.
The families have been living at the school in the wake of destruction of their houses in sea fury following cyclone Tauktae in 2020.
Acting on a petition from Shirley Justin, commission chairperson Antony Dominic said that till the time permanent accommodation could be provided, comfortable temporary accommodation should be arranged.
A report from the District Collector said that since schools had reopened, the fisher families had to be moved from there. Though the Veli youth hostel had been taken over to accommodate them, the families refused to shift there. Steps were being taken to construct houses for them under the Fisheries Department’s Punargeham project, the report said.
The complainant told the commission that the families had been forcibly moved from the school into an auditorium nearby, but it was not safe.
The commission pointed out that the District Collector had not given a clear reply to when permanent accommodation could be provided to the families. They should not be put up at the camp indefinitely, the commission said.
