FAMILIES of former tin miners in Kampung Meru Tin in Jelapang, Ipoh, are furious that they have not yet received their land titles even after waiting for over a decade. 

The 169 families occupying some 6ha of land at the former mining village erected a signboard bearing the name of the village at its entrance on Sunday. 

“This is a symbolic gesture to let the state government know that they should not neglect the people here.  

“It is also to show the frustration of the villagers who want what was promised to us years ago,” said residents committee chairman Hean Miaw Sen. 

Residents of Kampung Meru Tin expressing their disappointment after waiting for the land titles in vain for over 10 years.

He said that many letters had been sent to the Mentri Besar’s office but still nothing had been done. 

“The last we heard from the state government was via a letter from the Mentri Besar’s office in 1999 stating that the Ipoh Land Office would soon issue the land titles once some ‘technical issues’ were sorted out. 

“What technical issues? And why is it that ever since then, we have heard nothing from them?” he told reporters.  

Hean urged Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali to speed up the process of giving them their titles. 

“He (Tajol Rosli) is always talking about Perak becoming a squatter-free state so why is he not looking into this problem,” he said. 

Hean said that back in the 1930’s, the land was given to those working the mines by the old mining company, Meru Tin Limited. 

“The workers were issued Tem-porary Occupational Licences (TOL) and were allowed to build their homes and stay here.  

“When the company closed in the 1980’s, the state govern ment repossessed the land and the land office stopped issuing TOLs,” he said. 

Following that, said Hean, was a series of more problems when the disputed land was ‘accidentally’ sold off to a developer who then issued eviction notices to the residents there. 

“After everything was done, we were later told that we would get land titles and would be allowed to stay,” he said. 

“We are not squatters. We were promised our land titles way back in 1997,” Hean added.