The Fisheries Department has prepared the final list of 96 fishermen families from the coastal areas of Kozhikode district to be considered for an exclusive housing scheme of the State government, which will be implemented during the 2017-18 fiscal. The beneficiaries were selected after conducting a series of mass contact programmes in coastal belts. Officials said all the 96 families would get Rs. 6 lakh each to purchase land for the construction of a house. A separate allocation of Rs. 2 lakh would be made to support construction works. More families would be considered for the project in the second phase, they added. Officials said there were around 2,000 applicants from the district. However, most of them were unaware of the formalities to be followed to claim the benefit and the department conducted regional mass contact programmes to make them aware of the norms and to choose eligible persons, they added. Suitable land Deputy Director of the Fisheries Department Mariam Haseena said the preparation of the list was just the first step and further steps would be taken only when eligible fishers found land suitable for the construction of a house. Only properties that meet the criteria fixed by the State government and comply with the Coastal Regulation Zone Act will be considered for the scheme, she added. A special housing scheme for fishers was introduced by the State government on the basis of various field study reports on sea erosion threats and the pathetic living conditions in coastal belts. The studies found that several fishermen families did not have land to construct a house. Officials said the State government would construct not less than any 3,650 houses during the 2017-18 fiscal in various parts of Kerala for fishers. According to official records, 11,583 out of 2,12,653, fishermen families in the State do not have habitable houses, while over 11,000 families are both landless and homeless.