THERE is finally a collective sigh of relief for residents of Kg Segambut Permai in Kuala Lumpur. After much tension, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has finally acceded to their requests to be allocated acceptable alternative homes.

The village, located in the north of the capital city, has been earmarked for development with the final round of demolition yesterday.

The stumbling block for the remaining 33 families has been the alternative housing. DBKL had originally put them in transit homes, scattered in People’s Housing Projects (PPR) all over the city, where they can live for only six months.

The residents, however, fought for rent-to-buy houses which will allow them stability and they wanted to be placed in a same PPR project.

Following their last-ditch attempt to appeal to the Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad recently, they have been told their wish would be granted.

“All of us will be getting our alternative houses. We have received new offer letters from DBKL. The units are close to our village, as such we will not have problems of having to change schools for our children and travelling far for work,” residents’ representative Mohd Fariz Ramli, 35, told The Malaysian Insight.

“The offer letter also states that although the units offered are only for six months, we can, however, apply after three months to continue staying there.”

The residents are happy with the new deal, he said.

Twenty-eight families accepted DBKL’s offer while three families moved to their own homes. Two other families are living with their extended families.

Fariz said the new units are much better than the previous offer.

“We have been given three-bedroom house. The previous offer was for a single bedroom unit,” he added.

The group will now move to nearby PPRs in Intan Baiduri, Desa Rejang, Ayer Panas and Batu 5.

Their previous alternative houses were at PPRs in San Peng, Kerinchi, Seri Petaling and Pantai Ria, which they said were inconvenient because of the distance from their village.

“In our agreement with the developer, we will have to vacate our homes on January 6 (yesterday), failing which we won’t get the RM7,000 compensation.

“We are all satisfied with this new deal.” 

They collected the compensation yesterday and were the last remaining residents of the village while others left after the first eviction order in 2013. – January 7, 2020.