‘Penang sabotaging federal housing aid’

Nine kampung Buah Pala residents have accused the Penang state government of lying about offers of compensation.

GEORGE TOWN: The nine Kampung Buah Pala residents, who were left in lurch after their houses were demolished in September 2009, have accused the Penang state government of sabotaging the federal government’s effort to provide them with double-storey homes on the mainland.

The registered village residents association chairman M Sugumaran alleged that certain state government leaders were behind the misinformation disseminated in an article published by The Star on Jan 2.

The article claimed that the Kampung Buah Pala village was demolished by Syarikat Perumahan Negara (SPN) Bhd.

“How could The Star misinform the public? It’s a lie. The whole world knows that Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s administration was responsible for demolition of the Indian heritage village,” said Sugumaran.

Sugumaran has lodged a police report against the article at the Bayan Baru police station today.

He believes there are mischievous hands at work who are sabotaging the federal government’s efforts.

“Definitely there are elements of sabotage involved.

“Certain state government leaders know they can no longer lie to ethnic Indian community.

“So they are resorting to dirty tactics to sabotage the federal housing aid to us,” Sugumaran told a press conference here this afternoon.

Najib gave us houses

Also present were eight other house owners who were all denied compensation by Lim’s administration despite compensating 24 others with double storey homes on the former village site.

Sugumaran claims the Pakatan leaders were envious and unhappy with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s sincere and honest efforts to provide them houses that were denied by Lim’s vindictive misrule.

He accused Lim’s government of being responsible for demolishing homes of the nine temporary occupation licence (Tol) holders and denying them their rightful compensation.

“Pakatan leaders made empty promises to us,” he alleged.

“The state government demolished our houses but did not offer us new homes.

“The question of rejecting compensation never arose because we were never offered compensation anyway.

“Would anyone with a sensible mind reject compensation offers after their houses have been brutally demolished?

“The state government is lying,” chided Sugumaran.

He claimed that thus far their numerous attempts to seek compensation have been futile and that the relevant state leaders have turned deaf to their pleas.

The heartache of the nine residents are now partially relieved as they have accepted offers of double-storey houses worth RM220,000 each by SPN in Taman Sejahtera Indah, Teluk Air Tawar.

It’s learnt that they will be signing the sales and purchase agreement with SPN soon.

MIC did nothing

He hailed Najib for being caring and sympathetic towards their plight by taking up the responsibility to provide them homes on humanitarian grounds, not as compensation.

“He is the real people’s Prime Minister,” he exclaimed.

He also praised Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Md Hashim, Penang Indian Development Organisation (PIDO) chairman M Nganasegaran and Najib’s special assistant in charge of Indian affairs P Ravin for assisting the nine villagers to secure the houses.

In his police report, Sugumaran also accused Bukit Gelugor MIC branch chairman I Muthusamy of falsely claiming credit for the allocation of houses for the nine.

In The Star article, Muthusamy claimed that he had pushed hard for double-storey houses for the nine families for past two years when all the hard work was done by Zahrain and Ngnanasegaran.

“Obviously Muthusamy is lying,” said Sugumaran.

Despite accepting their new homes, he said the nine families would continue with their court battle to secure their rightful compensation from the state government.

He said the nine have documents to prove that the demolished Kampung Buah Pala land belonged to the villagers vis-a-vis the federal government, not the state.

However, he declined to reveal much on the evidence as the matter was pending in court.

“Wait till we reveal it in court,” warned Sugumaran.

Kampung Buah Pala, which was known commonly as Tamil High Chaparral due to population of ethnic Indians, cattle and other live stocks, was demolished to pave way for a posh condominium project, the Oasis, by Nusmetro Venture (Pg) Sdn Bhd.

The project is now almost completed.