BUTTERWORTH: A group of disgruntled Kampung Sungai Nyior residents near here who are facing eviction this Friday has demanded Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to help them.
Carrying buntings with messages of despair, the elderly group of 10 marched from Jalan Penang to Komtar to stage a sit-in protest outside the state government office today.
Emotions ran high among the residents as some of them comprising retirees and housewives sobbed openly after they found out that bulldozers were slated to flatten their houses.
A teary J.Krishnaveni, 49, said they wanted Lim to help them secure a higher compensation for the 13 affected households.
"We are having sleepless nights since the developer arrived at our doorsteps with the court bailiffs and police to tear down our homes last week," she said.
"We were only given a short grace period of one week and the prospect of being homeless has saddened us," she said.
Krishnaveni said they were forced to turn to Lim, who is also Bagan member of parliament, for help as the developer had refused to increase their compensation.
Echoing the same sentiment was Ng Thean Loke, 58, who said the residents needed help from Lim to meet the developer to demand better compensation.
"Lim has a duty to help us and he cannot run away from it.
"Our request is to get low-cost homes and we want an assurance from Lim," Ng said.
The residents' spokesperson, Walter Samuel, 46, who was born in the village was visibly riled up and vented his frustration at the meagre compensation offered by the developer.
Samuel, a human resource manager for a local firm, said they would bring mattress and blanket to sleep over on Level Three of the seat of the state government should their houses are torn down this Friday.
"We are going to turn Komtar into an old folks' home.
"There is no way we are going to meet daily ends with a mere RM2,000 one- time payout from the developer. The village is in Lim's constituency so he must do his part to help the needy," he said.
Samuel handed over a memorandum to highlight the urgency of the eviction to a personnel from the chief minster's office.
Meanwhile, the residents' elected representative Bagan Dalam assemblyman A. Tanasekharan said the residents were squatters and sub-tenants.
He said some residents had lived there for 50 years and they had paid RM30 monthly rental to the landowner.
"I have offered the residents units under the People Housing Project (PPR) before they received an eviction order from court but they refused to accept it.
"They are concerned about not getting the new houses immediately, " Tanasekharan said.