Give houses or we will stay put, say villagers

Kampung Ratnam Pillay residents want medium-cost houses from developer before they can vacate.

KUALA LUMPUR: Residents of Sentul’s Kampung Ratnam Pillay are seeking justice and want Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to instruct the company claiming ownership of the land to stop trying to chase them out.

The villagers claimed that the said said company sent their “representatives” to convince the residents to evacuate the village recently.

A spokesman for the villagers, K Sivabalan, 27, told FMT that the residents would not budge from the 108-year-old village if the company refused to meet their demands.

“We are the third generation living in this village. Thus, we want a fair treatment from the developer,” he said.

He added that 36 residents would only vacate if the company agreed to give a medium-cost house each for a reasonable price.

Previously, the residents had rejected the developer’s offer of RM5,000 for each family.

Sivabalan said on June 6, 25 repesentatives claiming to be from the company had offered the villagers RM16,000 as compensation and told them to move out.

“Since, June 6, was a working day, we called them for a discussion the following Saturday (June 8). During the meeting they told us that the developer was willing to increase the compensation to RM18,000 per household,” he said.

“They told us they will come back on July 8 to demolish the village,” he added.

Sivabalan said the residents had lodged a police report over the demolition threat.

“Our demand for a medium-cost house near Sentul is fair,” he said.

He added that they would submit a memorandum to Najib and the Federal Territories Ministry on the matter.

The village was sold to a Chinese tycoon in the late 50′s by Chettiar Private Limited.

It is learnt that the developer is planning to build three condominium blocks with each unit costing RM500,000.