A group of 14 landowners affected by the building of a second bridge spanning the Sungai Sarawak in Kuching are making a last-ditch attempt against eviction by turning to the court.

Accompanied by their lawyer Dominique Ng Kim Ho, they marched yesterday to the Land and Survey headquarters in Menara Pelita, Petra Jaya, to present government officials with various documents showing they had applied to the court for leave to appeal against eviction notices issued against them.

However, the department director, Mohammet Baijuri Jajui, was then at a meeting, and a senior officer of the department came out to receive the papers. He promised to hand them over to his superior.

Ng told malaysiakini today that his clients are unhappy with what he described as inadequate compensations offered by the government.

The landowners also felt the authorities had failed to take into consideration the current market value of landed properties in and around the area.

According to him, his clients were offered between RM20,000 and RM80,000 each, based on what he described as mere visual assessment of the types of dwellings, which, however, failed to take into consideration the potential value of the lands in the neighbourhood, especially with the construction of the bridge estimated at more than RM100 million.

The aggrieved parties were among more than 60 landowners affected by the bridge project which the state government had awarded to a local company owned and controlled by a local politician on a payment-in-kind basis.

Postponed twice

The completion date of the bridge project that connects Tanah Puteh to what is known as Kampung Bintawa Tengah on the north bank of Kuching has been postponed twice last year. It is now expected to be completed by year-end if the land issue is all resolved.

Ng said his clients have applied for leave to the court to have the two eviction notices served on them be quashed and for prohibition orders to stop the authorities from evicting them from their land as well as to have the matter of the compensations referred to the court for arbitration.

This will be heard in the Kuching High Court on Jan 16.

Ng said the compensations offered by the authorities to his clients were grossly inadequate for them to set up new homes because of the current high costs of construction.

Besides, the Kampung Rapangi resettlement area is not exactly conducive because of the nature of the land which is prone to flooding, he added.

According to Ng, there were originally 16 families who refused to accept the compensation offers, but two families subsequently withdrew after their amounts were "substantially increased".