Alleging laxity on the part of the State government in implementing a comprehensive rehabilitation package for landslide victims, a section of local residents who were affected by last year’s landslide at Vilangad resorted to a dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported the protest which partly affected the functioning of shops and other institutions in the village area.

Police officers from the Valayam station said the hartal was peaceful and there were no incidents of violence or road protests.They said the hartal mostly affected the interior areas of the Vilangad panchayat, where a section of local residents recently intensified their protests against the “unsatisfactory rehabilitation package from the government”.

Congress and BJP leaders alleged that nearly 30 families in the landslide-hit areas were totally excluded from rehabilitation support.

“We lost our source of livelihood. There were promises aplenty but nothing was implemented in time. Our land has become uncultivable after multiple episodes of landslides,” said a local settler farmer. He alleged that only very few people were considered for the rehabilitation aid granted by the State government.

The protesters were part of a sit-in in front of the Vilangad village office on Wednesday, which later ended up in a standoff with the police. The majority of the protesters were those who were given accommodation at a temporary relief camp at Vilangad.