Flagship LIFE Mission now threatens life of Kerala government

Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment Mission, popularly known as LIFE Mission, has been one of the flagship projects of the ruling Left-front government in Kerala aimed at providing housing for all homeless people in the state in five years. But now the LIFE Mission is posing a threat to the government's life itself owing to the allegations of commission and corruption linked to the gold smuggling accused as well as flouting of diplomatic procedures.

After its launch in 2017, over 2.25 lakh houses were already constructed and handed over to beneficiaries under the mission so far and amidst the controversies, the government has again invited applications for house construction under the scheme.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been often highlighting LIFE Mission as one of the major achievements of his government. A formal announcement regarding completion of nearly 2.15 lakh houses were made in February this year.

But now LIFE Mission's credibility is under question with the probe by Central agencies into the gold smuggling case involving UAE Consulate's former employees exposing serious irregularities in the LIFE Mission project.

A statement reportedly made by one of the key accused in the gold smuggling case, Swapna Suresh, who was a former employee of UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, that Rs one crore recovered from her bank locker was received as commission from a Rs 20-crore housing project under the LIFE Mission being funded by UAE based Red Crescent. Another gold smuggling accused Sandeep Nair was said to have received Rs 75 lakh.

Later a CPM-backed Malayalam news channel reported that the total commission involved in the deal was around Rs. 4.25 crore. This triggered allegations that many others in the government received kickbacks. Apart from some ministers, there were fresh allegations that a minister's son also received the kickback.

The entire row is over a housing scheme at Wadakancherry in Thrissur district for 140 families who lost houses in floods. The work of the project started last year, but got stalled due to COVID. The plan was to complete it by 2020 December.

When the allegations over the project came up, the Kerala government initially maintained that it had no direct involvement in getting the foreign aid and it was Unitac Builders, which was awarded the work, that directly got the aid from Red Crescent though the UAE Consulate. The agreements and other documents pertaining to the project later exposed that the government's claim was false and it was also involved in getting the foreign aid through the UAE Consulate. The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson recently said that the state government had not sought its nod for entering into a deal with a foreign entity and the ministry was looking into the matter.

Habitat, which is a Kerala-based known construction firm, was initially roped in for the project and the government also gave administrative sanction for Rs 13- crore project. But Habitat moved out of it after the LIFE Mission authorities maintained that prefabricated technology was planned for the project. But Unitac, which was later entrusted with the project, was not using prefabricated technology.