Tribunal solves cases for 270 house buyers

The Star 5/6/2003

PETALING JAYA: The House Buyers Tribunal has solved 270 of the 1,713 cases it received since it was set up early this year. 

Selangor made up most of the cases with 1,035 cases followed by Federal Territory (442 cases) and Kelantan (68 cases), Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said. 

Despite the number of unresolved cases, Ong said the tribunal had been a success because it was basically a “one-man show,” headed by the chairman Kamardin Hashim, the former senior judge of the Shah Alam Sessions Court. 

Ong said the settlement value of the 270 cases was RM2.2mil. 

To help ease the congestion, he said he had appointed five more members to the tribunal. 

The new members were Wong Chiang Kiat, Asmadi Hussin, Datin Jayalakshmi Ramachandran S. V. Aiyer, Ng Seng Kiok and Zamani Ibrahim.  

Ong said the new members were to serve a three-year term each. 

The term could be renewed but the maximum number of terms the tribunal members could serve was three, he said after launching a Town and Country Department Encyclopaedia at the Eastin Hotel yesterday. 

Ong also said that all future development projects by local authorities, states and the Government would be co-ordinated under one master plan called the National Spatial Plan (NSP). 

This meant that all projects in the country would complement each other from local authorities right up to the Federal Government, he said. 

“There will not be anymore piecemeal planning after the implementation of the National Spatial Plan,” he said. 

Ong said the NSP was developed following amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act two years ago, and the National Spatial Planning Council (NSPC) was also set up. 

He said the NSPC was scheduled to have its first meeting on June 23 which would be chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

The council members included all mentris besar and chief ministers, he added. 

“We hope there will be better co-ordination between local authorities, states and the Government after this meeting,'' he added. 

Ong said the NSP would not take away the powers of the state in approving projects. 

On the contrary, he said the NSP would further empower the states because local authorities were now required to consult the state before they could approve projects. 

“Prior to this, local authorities were authoritative and autonomous because they could approve projects without consulting the state government,'' he said.