Brief respite for two PJS longhouse residents

Court bailiff gives in to argument that eviction notice expires at midnight today and says that there will no compromise tomorrow.

PETALING JAYA: Two residents got a brief respite when they convinced a court bailiff and the police to halt their eviction from their homes in PJS 1 today.

V Mahalingam and A Pushparani were, however, given till 10am tomorrow to vacate their homes when they successfully argued that eviction issued May 23, expires at midnight today.

Court bailiff Nurul Asma Hairi, who was accompanied by about 20 policemen, said categorically she would not budge from enforcing the court order tomorrow.

On hand to represent Mahalingam and Pushparani were residents action committee head M Sugumaran, their lawyer B Renuka, PSM secretary general S Arutchelvan and PJ Selatan MP Hee Loy Sean.

Hindraf Makkal Sakthi national coordinator K Balakrishnan and Bukit Jalil estate action committee secretary S Thiakarajan were also present to lend support.

The land occupied by the two is in the way of a condominium project being developed by Peter Brickworks Sdn Bhd who had placed 27 families from several different locations in the area.

The families were moved in 2003 from Kampung Pinang, Kampung Petaling Tin and Kampung Muniandy on the understanding that they would be provided with low cost flats nearby.

Developer will be stopped

However, the developer failed to fulfil its pledge as residents on the earmarked site for the low cost flats obtained an injunction against the developer from going ahead with its plan.

The 27 families brought up their woes to the Selangor government, prompting Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to instruct MBPJ to issue a stop work order on the condominium project.

But as of 1pm today, the construction work on the condominium was still going on at the site and it was uncertain whether the stop work order had been served to the developer.

Later at a press conference, Arutchelvan said he hoped the police and the bailiff would give the residents more time to settle the dispute with the developer.

“We hope that Nurul (bailiff) will use her discretion on this matter and inform her officers of the stop work order issued by the state government for their consideration,” said Arutchelvan.

The PSM leader also said in the event she comes tomorrow to enforce the court order, the residents would not stop her.

“However, we will stop the developer from entering the site as he is not permitted to do anything on this land,” said Arutchelvan.