25 families facing eviction in need of homes

The Star, Saturday 6 August 2011

THE Bagan MCA division has urged the Penang Government to provide low-cost housing for 25 hardcore poor families in Kampung Federal along Jalan Siam who are facing eviction.

The division’s Youth chief David Chua said the families had to move out without any compensation after they lost their case against the landowners over higher compensation. “Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who is Bagan MP, can give a helping hand as they are poor people who cannot afford to rent houses elsewhere,” he said after visiting the families with Sungai Puyu Implementation and Coordination Unit officer Sum Yoo Keong and state MIC Youth chief J. Dhinagaran.

Chua presented food items to the families and broke fast with them. On July 28, the magistrate court in Penang ruled in favour of the landowners.

The landowners had offered all the families compensation of between RM1,000 and RM4,000 each except for one family which was offered RM20,000. The families subsequently filed a suit against the landowners demanding higher compensation but the court decided they were not entitled to any compensation.
Chua urged the landowners to give aid to the families on compassionate grounds.

The families said they were unhappy that Bagan Dalam assemblyman A. Tanasekharan had asked them to pay RM500 to file an appeal against the court’s decision. Chua thanked Dhinagaran for paying the RM350 fee to file the appeal. Tanasekharan when contacted said he represented the families in court without charging them any fees. “I asked them to pay only the fees for the appeal which I later reduced to RM350.”