Not all can live in the cozy comfort of apartments or neatly built condominiums, lest any proper home of their own. It often turns a headache for government to manage slums when it comes to urban planning. Over the years, many such reforms earned praise in books but the reality was zilch; nothing came out of it and the people lodged in slums were to suffer the hell-like living unknown to many echelons in power.

India house the largest slum in Asia, Dharavi. BMC and Maharashtra government have rolled out dozens of 'magnanimous' schemes to upend the squalid quarters of such slums into livable forms that emanate freshness. However, the government works have only enlarged the slums over time. Kerala also has many such slums; not on par with Dharavi, but not too small to be neglected. Every budget season it turns the norm for the people in power to pronounce big words of assurement about resettling people of slums. For this, many such housing quarters also towered in city heartlands. However, as years passed, more people started to settle here illegally with more families coming for abode putting the government in a fix.

Fort Kochi’s Thuruthy also has a slum, mainly unknown to the outside world. More than 1000 families cram here pushing a living doing odd gigs. And yesterday news came out about the government almost getting ready to inaugurate the new construction which has passed its finishing work, ready to lodge all those slum people. One of the best news today and by a big margin. Over 1000 people applied for resettlement and many among them will have their wishes fulfilled in the coming months. In the first phase of the scheme, 398 families will be housed in the new complex. The scheme took shape during the UPA government times. Rajeev Awas Yojana was the name for the program intended to gift new housing facilities to the financially burdened ones. The two buildings about to be inaugurated began their work in 2017.

Within six months' time, the 398 families can enter the new apartment with new hopes of a better life. Seven floors of the second apartment have been finished. Further works are continuing at a fast pace for setting the abode for the rest of the applied families. The bottom two floors of the apartments will be given for rent, mostly for shops and business needs.

Meanwhile, the vacating slums of Kochi will be taken by the corporation. However, the government should be vigilant to not allow any illegal building to rise; many political mavens might have already started their big dreams of minting money with this prized location. Nevertheless, the land should be saved and conserved.