Angry villagers stage serpent protest
IPOH: Residents from a village here brought a live 10-foot python to the Mentri Besar's office to highlight their fear of having to bear with unwelcome visits from slithery “guests” for the past one year.
“We have been having sleepless nights as we never know when a snake would come by our beds,” said labourer C. Subramani, who acted as spokesman for the group of residents from Kampung DBI in Buntong.
He said he caught the snake on Wednesday night outside his house and decided to bring it to the state secretariat building here yesterday as “proof” of their traumatic experiences.
The villagers, he said, had to bear with incidents of snakes getting into their house compounds at least three times a week.
Raising a ssstink: Subramani (right) showing the python that the villagers had caught to a policeman at Dr Zambry’s office in Ipoh Thursday. Subramani, 51, led the group of residents to present a memorandum to the Mentri Besar yesterday.
However, their plan was unsuccessful as the main gate of the Mentri Besar's office was cordoned off by police personnel as word got out earlier about the villagers' move.
The snake, which was kept inside a cage, was later sent to the Fire and Rescue Department. The cage was placed inside a car opposite the building.
Subramani, however, managed to present the memorandum to the Mentri Besar's special assistant Zulkefli Abdullah outside the gate of the building.
Speaking to reporters later, he claimed their previous complaints about the snakes had gone unheeded.
He said Kampung DBI, a pre-independence village, consisted mostly of wooden houses occupied by low-salaried workers and retirees and was overrun with lalang.
He claimed that the reptiles started to appear in their bathrooms and bedrooms following development work in nearby areas.
One villager died in November last year after being bitten by a snake, he said.
Zulkefli said he would hand over the memorandum to Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, who was aware of the villagers' plight.
source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/20/nation/8718672&sec=nation
seals: Should we go for a change?
“We have been having sleepless nights as we never know when a snake would come by our beds,” said labourer C. Subramani, who acted as spokesman for the group of residents from Kampung DBI in Buntong.
He said he caught the snake on Wednesday night outside his house and decided to bring it to the state secretariat building here yesterday as “proof” of their traumatic experiences.
The villagers, he said, had to bear with incidents of snakes getting into their house compounds at least three times a week.
Raising a ssstink: Subramani (right) showing the python that the villagers had caught to a policeman at Dr Zambry’s office in Ipoh Thursday. However, their plan was unsuccessful as the main gate of the Mentri Besar's office was cordoned off by police personnel as word got out earlier about the villagers' move.
The snake, which was kept inside a cage, was later sent to the Fire and Rescue Department. The cage was placed inside a car opposite the building.
Subramani, however, managed to present the memorandum to the Mentri Besar's special assistant Zulkefli Abdullah outside the gate of the building.
Speaking to reporters later, he claimed their previous complaints about the snakes had gone unheeded.
He said Kampung DBI, a pre-independence village, consisted mostly of wooden houses occupied by low-salaried workers and retirees and was overrun with lalang.
He claimed that the reptiles started to appear in their bathrooms and bedrooms following development work in nearby areas.
One villager died in November last year after being bitten by a snake, he said.
Zulkefli said he would hand over the memorandum to Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, who was aware of the villagers' plight.
source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/20/nation/8718672&sec=nation
seals: Should we go for a change?
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