Poor family grateful for TOL, new house
MIRI: A poor family living in a dilapidated termite-infested house in Tudan Phase II are thankful that their appeal for help to repair their house had touched the hearts of caring people.
They are now living in a new house on land given TOL ownership title by the government.
They had on Deepavali day in 2016, appealed to the authorities to approve their application for a Temporary Occupation Licence ( TOL) on land they occupied to facilitate their application for e-Kasih to repair their house which was in danger of collapsing.
Just before Chinese New Year this year, the family moved into a new concrete house with proper kitchen, toilet, three bedrooms and a living room.
Miri City Caring Society (MCCS) deputy president councillor Karambir Singh led a team to visit the family on Nov 2, 2016, and found that the rickety house was in urgent need of repair.
They followed up on the family’s application for e-Kasih.
The old wooden house was built over a water-logged area.
It was previously owned by Bong Jung Fui who passed away two years ago, leaving it to his adopted son Low Kwai Hian and his family who had stayed with him.
Low, 40, and his wife Sim Siew Giok, 26, have five children aged one to nine years old.
Working as a freelance car painter, Low could not repair the house by himself and was worried that the wooden house would collapse any time.
MCCS highlighted their plight to Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).
The family had earlier applied for a PPRT house under e-Kasih programme but was hampered by red tape on the transfer of TOL to Low from his adoptive father.
Low’s adoptive father had before he died given the will handwritten in Chinese to Low.
SUPP then helped him with a Power of Attorney to support the transfer of the land and the house.
With this, Miri District Office was then able to convince Land and Survey Department to issue Low a TOL.
“We are grateful to MCCS, SUPP, Miri District Office and the Land and Survey Department for responding to our plight and helping our family have a proper house,” Low’s wife said.
MCCS has been involved in helping the sick, poor and needy groups in Miri since its inception in 2009, with activities ranging from application for welfare aid, house repairs and burying the dead to sending street urchins to school and others.
Led by chairman Pemanca Wilson Siang Lim, MCCS has been involved in repairing several dilapidated houses of poor families in the city and its suburbs.