Shelter eludes Chenchus, this time thanks to MCC

Dr. Sarma requested the ECI to immediately issue an order to the Chief Electoral Officer of AP and the local municipal authorities to allow the 60 odd Chenchu families to occupy the houses long meant for them.

Visakhapatnam: Thanks to the Model Code of Conduct in connection with the MLC elections, Chenchus in the city are deprived of their shelter for which they have been waiting for years.

Informing this in a letter to the Election Commission of India here on Friday, former Secretary to the Central government EAS Sarma, pointed out that the Chenchu community is recognised as a “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group” (PVTG), who have special rights under the Constitution and are entitled to basic amenities such as food security, shelter and education.

There are about 60 migrant Chenchu families living in an unlivable slum in the heart of Visakhapatnam city uprooted by the local municipality more than five years ago, with the promise that pucca houses would be built at that very same location for rehabilitating them. The promised houses became a mirage for years. After inordinate bureaucratic delays, they are at last ready.

“The Chenchus led by their patriarch, Ramulu, were forced to run from pillar to post to get those houses, which were meant for them, but there were interlopers, benami claimants, mostly political brokers, trying to grab those very same houses. Ramulu and his Chenchu compatriots never gave up hope, as they had no other alternative. They continuously kept the authorities under pressure, with help from a few helpful NGOs,” Dr. Sarma wrote in his letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar.

And when finally, the municipal authorities, threatened with cases to be filed against them under the Prevention of Atrocities against the STs Act, and threatened with exposing them for human rights violations committed against the Chenchus on the eve of the “Amrit Kal” G-20 meetings here, had started acting and almost got ready with house allotment orders for the desperate Chenchus but, the golden alibi of the ECI’s Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came in handy on the eve of the ensuing MLC elections to the Graduates Constituency for this region, for the local authorities to prolong the trauma of the Chenchus. As a result, the hapless Chenchus are forced to wait indefinitely, once again, not in a position to understand how the ECI’s MCC has anything to do with their shelter, for which they have had to fight for so long, he stated.

“Two days ago, the Chenchu patriarch’s health became critical and he was delirious. But, his last words before his demise were “when are we moving into pucca houses?” Ramulu will never know that it is the exalted office of the Delhi-based ECI that has, in the name of upholding the integrity of the MLC election, prohibited the Chenchus from moving into houses that should have belonged to them long ago. And considering that only graduates can elect an MLC and considering that Chenchus, who are subject to social discrimination for ages, will take a long time to become graduates, is it not a laughable matter that ECI’s MCC should come in handy to delay house allotment to them? How can they ever influence MLC elections?,” Dr. Sarma asked.

Observing that the Commission seemed to have double standards in the matter of enforcing the MCC, one to exempt the influential and allow them to benefit and another to enforce it and punish the disadvantaged, he recalled how the ECI decided to defer announcement of the Gujarat Assembly elections, which also meant deferment of the MCC (in contrast, the Himachal elections scheduled for the same period were announced earlier), which enabled the ruling political party to hold rallies and inaugurations to gain undue political advantage, including a hasty inauguration of the Morbi bridge that caused an immense human tragedy.

Dr. Sarma requested the ECI to immediately issue an order to the Chief Electoral Officer of AP and the local municipal authorities to allow the 60 odd Chenchu families to occupy the houses long meant for them, before March 13, the scheduled date of voting.