VALLAKADAVU(IDUKKI): LKG student Sajira is afraid to go to school. She wants to stay with her umma and vappa so that they won’t be swept away, if Mullaperiyar dam collapses. Similar is the version of hundreds of children who were protesting at Vallakadavu, just six kilometres downstream the dam.Many children and elders here are suffering from severe trauma because of the dam, Vallakadavu ward representative Vijayamma Thankappan says.“Children are afraid to go to school and most of them stay inside their houses as they fear that the dam will collapse anytime. If the dam collapses, the entire village will be washed away within seven minutes. The children are hearing it ever since they were born. Several children wake up in the middle of the night and enquire whether the dam has collapsed,” Vijayamma says.Similarly, 12-year-old Arjun goes to school everyday carrying a rubber tube so that he can escape even if water washes off his house. He keeps the tube inside his bag and near to him while he sleeps during night.Social activist Rajappan narrates a recent incident when one of his neighbours became unconscious after reading a recent newspaper report that the water level in the Mullaperiyar has increased substantially and cracks have appeared in the dam. “People are very afraid to live here. Several elders are asking their children to move away from here as they want a natural death. The price of the land has gone down and no one is ready to buy land here,” Rajappan says.The villagers in one voice say that no leader or officials have come here to give them a little solace. “The politicians come here just for seeking votes. In each elections they promise that a new dam will be built soon. The authorities also travel through the village to the dam area but no one ever has attempted to speak to them. No one cares for our life,” Gopalan, a native, says.
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