Kerala's first tribal Grama Panchayat and the Muthuvan community: Edamalakkudy in Idukki

Background

The Idukki District Development Committee has appointed an expert panel to report within a month on unfinished houses and houses needing repair in Edamalakkudy, which brings the State's only tribal panchayat back into view. Edamalakkudy is the first tribal Grama Panchayat in Kerala. Its own profile calls it a local self-government institution set up mainly for the social, economic and cultural progress of the Muthuvan tribal community, and it also works on environmental conservation and sustainable development. The panchayat lies in Idukki District, in terrain so remote that road work on the stretch towards it is still incomplete. The Forest department has been building houses there with money from the Scheduled Tribes Development department, and a technical committee found that only foundation work had been finished for 30 of them. A preliminary assessment put 12 houses in need of emergency repair and 30 in need of complete rebuilding. The panel appointed now has the Finance Officer, the Public Works Department Executive Engineer, the Local Self-Government Department Executive Engineer and a representative of the Scheduled Tribes Development department.