GEORGE TOWN: A family of five who had been shuttling between public toilets and living out of their car for the past eight months after losing their home in a fire today moved into a temporary flat provided by the state government
Ganesh Soundarajah, 33, his wife, and three children, aged eight months to six years, moved into their government flat at Rifle Range in Air Itam this morning.
The flat is free of charge for them and is a temporary unit made available for victims of disasters until they find a new home.
Ganesh’s woes were made known to the public after an NGO noticed his family living out of an old Proton Saga at the polo grounds here earlier this week.
It also received the attention of well-known philanthropist and preacher Ebit Lew, who got them electrical appliances and a rented home for a month.
In handing over the keys to Ganesh, state Housing Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said he was deeply concerned after seeing them living in hardship.
“Please don’t assume we are not doing anything when we have been going all out to help, despite our limitations,” he said, adding there are only 999 units of flats meant for the poor or People’s Housing Projects (PPRs) in the state to date.
Jagdeep clarified that the RM90-a-month rental flats were under the purview of the federal government. Penang had the least number of such available units in the country — 999, or just 1% of the total 114,652 units available nationwide.
“We have proposed five plots of state government land to Putrajaya for PPRs since 2017, but there has been no response.
“We have 772 people on the waiting list (for PPR flats) since 1983,” he told reporters here today.
The five plots of land proposed are at Sungai Pinang, Batu Maung, Bagan Dalam, Machang Bubok and Bukit Tambun.
Explaining about the delay in helping Ganesh, Jagdeep said the state only received an application for a government housing unit from him on Wednesday (Dec 23), a day before his hardship was made known to the press.
Jagdeep said when Ganesh lost his home in a fire in April, welfare officers had offered his family a place to stay in a temporary evacuation centre but this was refused as Ganesh wanted to live with a relative instead.
Ganesh thanked the Penang government for the flat and credited the press for making this possible. He insisted that he had applied for government housing through a “YB’s office behind the former Rex Theatre” at Kinta Lane.
He said he then brought the forms to Komtar and was later told to “wait” as there were many people on the waiting list.
Penang Hindu Association’s P Murugiah, who enquired on Ganesh’s housing application, was told by a government officer that the application form was “incomplete” as certain required documents were not submitted.
Jagdeep, when contacted for comment about this, reiterated that the Penang government had offered Ganesh a place at the temporary evacuation centre in April but he had refused to take up the offer.
He said Ganesh would now be placed on the priority list to get a rent-to-own or affordable flat for the time being. “We got him a place to stay in 48 hours after his application was made on Wednesday,” he added.