Kg
Tropicana green belt not gazetted: Buffer zone for now
Malay Mail 8/6/2005 By Harny Abu Khair
PETALING JAYA, SELANGOR, June 8
Although the area surrounding the four-hectare Kampung Tropicana in
Subang is designated as a green belt and is a buffer zone for the
neighbouring Sungai Buloh forest reserve, it has yet to be gazetted.
Petaling District Officer Mazalan Mohd Noor said the area has always
been designated as a green belt and the villagers are not eligible
for Temporary Occupancy Licences (TOL).
He said the Land Office received about 135 applications for TOLs but
they were rejected because the land was a green belt.
Furthermore, the area is an affluent one and is thus unsuitable for
agriculture.
Mazalan said the land will remain a buffer zone for the forest
reserve, until there is an application to alienate and develop it.
“It is the State Government’s prerogative to approve any application
to alienate the land for development,” he said.
He said the land was earmarked for a buffer zone when Kampung
Tropicana was still covered by forest.
The area was cleared to make way for Tenaga Nasional’s high tension
wires and pillars.
Asked why the area was not gazetted, Mazalan said the process was
normally carried out by the State Government.
“The land belongs to the State and the villagers are squatting on
Government land,” he said.
He said, in line with the State Government’s aspiration to achieve
Developed State status for Selangor by August, the squatters had
been included in the relocation programme and had been offered
low-cost houses.
“The relocation exercise for Kampung Tropicana is similar to those
of other squatter settlements in the State,” he said.
He said the squatters were offered low-cost flats in nearby Pelangi
Damansara and Ara Damansara.
The low-cost flats in Pelangi Damansara are expected to be ready in
two months. Those in Ara Damansara are expected to be ready by the
end of the year.
He said the offer took into consideration the 20 squatter families
who refused to be relocated.
It was reported earlier that the residents, who have been living in
the village for 40 years selling jasmine flowers and rearing goats
and cattle, were told to move out and make way for development.
The residents applied for TOL in May 2001.
The Land Office on May 25 informed them that the land that they had
been occupying was designated as a green belt.
Village headman G. Karinasamy claimed that two weeks ago, Subang MIC
chief N.R. Krishnan, who is a Petaling Jaya Municipal Councillor,
visited them and said that the squatters’ homes would be demolished
in September for a housing project.
The residents said that if their homes were demolished, they would
have no where else to go.
They also claimed that they could not afford to buy the low-cost
houses, offered at RM42,000 per unit.
The Malay Mail has been unable to get in touch with Krishnan. We
were told by Subang Jaya Municipal Councillor S. Ammini that he had
gone to India. He is expected to be back today. |
| |
|
