The Ministry of the Interior should immediately reject rezoning plans for New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) for failing to take into account local opposition, residents of the Wenzaizun (塭仔圳) area said yesterday, adding that the plans would lead to widespread unemployment and homelessness.
Several hundred people gathered outside of the ministry offices, shouting slogans and demanding housing and work rights.
“The ministry cannot let the plans go into effect without reaching a consensus with us — city planning is not supposed to leave people homeless and unemployed,” Wenzaizun Self-Help Association head Chiu Shu-wen (邱淑雯) said through tears, demanding that the ministry reject the plan and demand that the New Taipei City Government lay out specific plans for where demolished factories would be relocated to.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Resident Ye Chien-zhong (葉建忠) said that government plans would force at least 113 households out of the area, because they would lose their homes, but would not be given enough compensation to purchase another house.
“We demand the right for legal residents to preserve their homes, but the city government has refused to give any promises, only saying it would make adjustments to individual cases after the plans go into effect,” he said.
Activist Wu Chun-chi (吳俊奇) said that the plans should be rejected on the grounds that the government failed to take residents’ views into consideration and refused to make adjustments to its plans in response to protests.
“Everything is becoming more and more urgent now because we are already in the review phase of the rezoning plans — if they pass review, they will go into effect,” Taiwan Anti-Forced Eviction Alliance member Jia Bo-kai (賈伯楷) said.
Jia added that the plans were unrealistic and failed to consider thousands of workers who would be left unemployed after factories are demolished, while building large residential complexes when neighboring districts have a housing glut.
Department of Land Administration Deputy Director Shih Ming-tzu (施明賜) said that activists could send several representatives to a review meeting next week with local government officials, but declined to promise the plans would be rejected.
Shih’s remarks drew ire from the protesters, who pushed against police officers escorting Shih into the ministry.
Activists later plastered the ministry’s gates with printed slogans.
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