NST : Stop harassing poor families'

Stop harassing poor families'

2011/06/19
By Adie Suri Zulkefli 

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BUTTERWORTH: The state housing division has been urged to stop hounding the 20 poor families in the Taman Bagan Rakyat low-cost flats in Raja Uda for failing to settle their rental arrears amounting to thousands of ringgit.

Barisan Nasional Bagan parliamentary coordinator David Chua said the state government should find ways to settle the arrears.

Chua claimed that officers from the state housing division had been hounding the tenants by making phone calls to pressure them into settling their arrears or risked being evicted.

The families have been served with final notices to settle the arrears since February.

"We urge the state government to stop pressuring the families and to find an amicable solution," he said after meeting the families yesterday.

The families, some of whom depend on monthly allowances from the Welfare Department, were unable to pay the RM120 monthly fee. Some had racked up arrears amounting to more than RM5,000 each.

Chua urged the state housing division to give the families more time as MCA was referring the matter to the Implementation Coordination Unit under the Prime Minister's Department.

"We are applying for an allocation from the ICU to help these families settle their rents."

MCA was also helping five families, who were served with final notices for failing to settle their utility bills, which will be settled tomorrow.

Among them is single parent Sarinah Ariffin and her four children. They have been living without electricity supply for the past nine months.

She said Tenaga Nasional Bhd cut the supply to her unit last year after her former husband failed to settle RM1,721 arrears.

Sarinah, who is unemployed, said she depended on a RM400 allowance from the Welfare Department to support her children aged between 7 and 15.

On top of that, her former husband had also failed to pay the rental since 2006, which now amounted to more than RM6,000.

Another resident, Fadzil Mohd Hassan, 61, who lost his eyesight because of an ailment 13 years ago, claimed that officers from the state housing division had warned him to settle the dues or face eviction during their visit to the flats four months ago.

"How am I to pay when I cannot work and depend on a RM200 monthly allowance?" asked the father of eight.