Deepavali and no toilets

Kampung Bunga Raya Subang residents are outraged and feel let down by their assemblyperson who has left them in the lurch without functioning toilet facilities.

PETALING JAYA: As the Indian community gear up to celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights, 118 Indian families in Kampung Bunga Raya Subang are in the dark for a solution to their toilet woes.

The village head, K Ramachandran said that when he approached the Kota Damansara assemblyperson Halimahton Saadiah’s office to seek help regarding their toilet maintenance problem, he was told that funds were an issue as the settlement was owned by the developer – Sinar Fadzilat.

“All we want is repairs to our existing toilet system which is clogged up due to poor maintenance. As a temporary solution we’ve been using a nearby petrol station ,” Ramachandran told FMT.

However, the assemblyperson had explained that they needed to wait for federal government funds before they can proceed with any repairs. Estimated cost for repairs is approximately RM3,500.

One resident, Saras, told FMT that she and her family have been preparing for their Deepavali using their beds and table tops as the recent daily rains has caused flooding due to the clogged drainage.

Residents say that over the past 22 years there has never been proper toilet facilities or system and now their existing ‘temporary’ system is clogged and backed up .

“We are not interested in Deepavali hampers and goodies, we want temporary solution to our toilets,” she added.

Commenting on the issue, Malaysian Tamil Today’s secretary general, K Gunasekaran meanwhile lashed out at MIC president G Palanivel for getting his priorities wrong in helping the Indian community.

“We have an Indian leader in MIC who is more worried about extending holidays for festival [Deepavali to be gazetted as a two-day public holiday] than looking into real issues of the community,” he said, in reference to Palanivel’s recent request to the government to increase the Deepavali public holiday.

Gunasekaran said that the residents were in the midst of trying to resolve their pending eviction and now they were being denied basic toilet facilities.

On Aug 31, FMT highlighted the plight of the 118 families from Kampung Bunga Raya Subang. The families here live in abject poverty and face eviction from their snake, rat and insect infested environment.