Two villages told to make way for low-cost housing in Mandalay
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Residents of two villages on a 1,345-acre plot of land in Mandalay Region will have to move to make way for a low-cost housing project that will be built on the site, but they can buy flats in the new project, the Mandalay City Development Committee said
Residents of the two villages in Pyigyidagon Township, however, say they cannot afford the low-cost apartments, and have refused to sign an agreement with the committee to vacate the land.
Local authorities met with them on September 22 and offered to sell them flats in the new project, but they rejected the offer and refused to sign an agreement.
"They called us ‘squatters’ in the agreement, so we refused to sign it. Another reason is we don't trust them. Who can guarantee us that we will get homes," a resident who attended the meeting said.
“It’s up to them whether or not they want to accept the deal,” an official on the city’s development committee said. “We made the offer in front of the media to show that it is irrevocable,” he added.
The official said the project could not proceed until they moved. “We came here to inform them that we can give them homes at the low-cost housing project, but they said couldn't afford the Ks 10 million [US$10,000] cost of an apartment,” he said, adding that this information would be passed on to his superiors.
The city development committee has already banned land sales at the site and threatened legal action against anyone who attempts to do so. "We announced that we will clear the land in newspapers. Then, we will start on the housing project. We will take legal actions against those who do not move,” said Thet Naing Tun, joint secretary of the committee.
The two villages located on the site are: Kangyikone and Zeoak. The land had been designated farmland until 1988 when the Mandalay Region government reclassified it as residential.
Construction of the new project is slated to begin by the end of this year.
