Poor, homeless and unprivileged people of Kerala have a reason to cheer. The state government has launched a Rs 50 billion project to provide homes for the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) category.

Houses would be provided by the end of May 2011 to thousands of poor families as per Kerala chief minister, V .S. Achuthanandan, who was addressing the representatives of 27 organizations, campaigning for the rights of the underprivileged.

Achuthanandan said the proposed house project would be the biggest project of his government. About 68,148 SC families in the state have no land and 64,645 SC families and 35,000 ST families are surviving under open sky. The state government would remove encroachment by land mafia to build shelters for the poor.

State revenue department has identified 5,000 acres to implement the proposed project. The state would get funds worth Rs 25 billion from the cooperation department, Rs 15 billion from the SC/ST department and remaining funds from other departments.

Meanwhile, the package has been rejected by the leader of the 'Sadhu Jana Vimochna Munnai', Laha Gopalan who is leading the Chengara agitation in the Pathanamthitta district.