This website is
 

 Welcome    Main    Forum    FAQ    Useful Links    Sample Letters   Tribunal  

It appears that there never was such a project in the first place!

Acting on this new information which they had just found out on their own, the disgruntled villagers lodged a report with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) yesterday against Subang MIC chairman N.R. Krishnan and the Petaling Land Office.

The villagers claimed that Krishnan had, two weeks ago, urged the villagers to take up the offer of low-cost homes as their village would be levelled to make way for a proposed housing project.

However, when contacted yesterday, Selangor Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Mokhtar Dahlan denied that the area had been earmarked for development.

He said the area surrounding the 4-hectare village was designated as a buffer zone for the 347-hectare Sungai Buloh forest reserve.

“As such, there is no way that a housing project could be allowed in the area. This is also one of the reasons we are urging the squatters to take up the offer of alternate housing, apart from facilitating the State Government’s Zero Squatter Plan,” said Mokhtar.

He said based on a recent meeting with the villagers, most of them had agreed to relocate except for 20 families.

He said the relocation would be beneficial to the squatters as the new homes would be strategically located with better amenities.

“As it is now, there isn’t even a proper road system in the village, nor a proper garbage collection system. They should just move first to make it easier for themselves,” said Mokhtar, adding that the Ara Damansara flats offered to them are expected to be completed by October.

Asked about allegations that Krishnan had told villagers that a housing developer, who had purchased the land, would be developing the area in September, Mokhtar said he was in the dark over Krishnan’s comments.

“I do not know what the Subang MIC chairman is talking about. As far as I’m concerned, the area will not be developed after the villagers are relocated,” said Mokhtar.

Efforts to contact Krishnan yesterday were unsuccessful.

Village headman G. Karinasamy said he was shocked by Mokhtar’s statement.

“Now we don’t know who to believe. We were under the assumption that our homes would be demolished for a housing project. And now the State Exco says otherwise.

“What is Krishnan’s motive for telling us this? We would like him to explain himself.”

Karinasamy said two of the village’s representatives lodged a report against Krishnan and the Petaling Land Office at the ACA headquarters in Shah Alam about 11am yesterday.

“In the case of the Land Office, we are curious as to why they denied our applications on the basis of the land’s status,” said Karinasamy.

“Why did they conduct interviews of the applicants in 2002 and three years later, reject it after suddenly discovering that the land could not be processed for TOL purposes?

“There are serious discrepancies in the system. Did it really take the Land Office three whole years to check on the land’s suitability? There is something wrong here and we aim to find out what it is.”

Yesterday, The Malay Mail front-paged the villagers’ claims that their applications for TOL status on the land, on which they have lived for almost 40 years, were rejected by the Petaling Land Office as it was gazetted as a forest reserve.

They were left even more confused after Krishnan apparently informed them that the village would be demolished in September to make way for a proposed housing project.

The villagers claimed that even if they were able to obtain bank loans for the low-cost homes in Ara Damansara, they would not be able to pay the instalments as they make a living by selling jasmine flowers and rearing livestock.