A child is seen at the site of a demolished house at Kampung Chubadak in Sentul, June 13, 2014, Kuala Lumpur. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Datuk Seri Ahmad Phesal Talib urged villagers recently evicted from their homes in Kg Chubadak Tambahan in Sentul to move out to the flats awarded by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) instead of illegally occupying the land.

According to the Kuala Lumpur mayor last night, the villagers’ decades-old houses were demolished because the land no longer belongs to them, as it has been sold to developers who now have the right to develop the area.

“You have to understand, the land belongs to somebody else. But we still try to solve the issue, even when they have settled on private land,” Ahmad Phesal told The Malay Mail Online last night.

“They have to move out. We have let them to stay in a better condition. It is better than living in that area. Until when do they want to occupy other people’s land?”

The evicted villagers were awarded RM7,000 for each family by the developer, and a house in the Batu Muda People’s Housing Programme (PPR).

However, some have complained that they cannot move in yet as there was still no electricity supply.

Ahmad Phesal was attending a meeting last night with residents of five heritage villages in the Gombak area, but a resident had pointed out that Kg Chubadak was absent from the list.

The mayor told The Malay Mail Online that residents from Kg Chubadak were not invited as they were not involved with the road upgrade exercise DBKL was proposing last night.

The proposal was however met with resistance from most residents from the five villages, who do not wish to give up their land.

Despite that, he insisted that Kg Chubadak, Kg Chubadak Tambahan, and others in the vicinity also count as heritage villages.

In 1998, the Kuala Lumpur High Court decided that the land in Kg Chubadak belonged to the people who had started the village. The court added that if the area was to be developed the people must be compensated with an amount equal to the value of their settlement.

However by 2008, DBKL had listed down Kg Chubadak Tambahan as squatters’ settlement under the 2020 Kuala Lumpur City Plan, together with five other villages.

On Monday last week, three houses were demolished by DBKL as part of a clearing process that had started in 2013 in order to make way for future development.

The demolition was, however, temporarily halted on Thursday after NGOs and PAS representatives managed to obtain a High Court injunction, staying the demolition until the case is heard on June 26.