Archive for September, 2005

Response to issues raised during press conference by Minister of Works, Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu

Posted by sripetaling.net in Press Coverage, Residents Actions on September 25th, 2005

The Works Minister made the following statements during their press conference to respond to the issues that was raised by us but we believe he was fed with wrong information to start with.

Subsequently, the residents held a press conference on 24 Sept 2005 to respond to the statements made by the Works Minister. Here are the details of our response.

Point 1: “The purpose of the highway is to ease the traffic at KL-Seremban highway. It is important to proceed as the traffic volume at KL-Seremban highway has increased significantly.”

Residents Response:

The residents support development projects by the Government. We believe the Government has done proper due diligence and viability studies before approving this highway project. However, we do not believe that it is the Government’s intention to plan for certain sections of the highway (in this case the stretch along Jalan 2/149 at Sri Petaling) to cause the residents to live in fear for the rest of their life. This is definitely not consistent with the “Caring Government” as advocated.

In additions, we do not believe that the Government would approve the setback of 2.3m which is clearly breaching its own guidelines; the Government would also not allow project to be carried out without prior consultation/ briefing with the affected residents

Point 2: “Construction work started about 30% and spent about RM400mil. If changes to the engineering construction design, it will cause delay and additional costs.”

Residents Response:

We believe our Government is far sighted. We understand that this is supposed to be a “Protocol Highway” that will be another national icon for Malaysian. Surely, we would not allow mistake/error by the authorities to make us a laughing stock for the world. There are alternatives to resolve the mistake and timely resolution will cause the Government less as compared to ignoring the mistake made.

Read the rest of this entry »

, , ,

No Comments

Protest at Malaysia Parliament House

Posted by sripetaling.net in Events & Meetings, News & Developments, Residents Actions on September 20th, 2005

While all the effort to communicate and resolve our issues ignored, the residents decided to stage a protest at the Malaysia Parliament House during one of the sitting.

The residents conducted a peaceful protest at the Parliament on the 19 Sept 2005. Arriving in the morning, close to about 100 residents of Sri Petaling lifted their spirits and colorful banners to voice their displeasure for the construction of the highway so close to their homes.

We prepared a memorandum to be handed to some of the Members of Parliament for the purpose of highlighting our struggle. We met Dato Shahrir Samad who is the chairman of Backbenchers Club and Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He received our memorandum and agreed to investigate into the matter. We also distributed leaflets which was circulating in the House hoping the Works Minister would take notice our effort to contact him.

Here are some of the selected pictures . (Click on the pictures to see the whole gallery)

We finally managed to meet the Works Minister, Samy Vellu and he mentioned a few statements regarding the project indicating that he is not afraid to meet the residents because he is NOT in the wrong. He got all fired up and screamed when one of the residents made a harsh but true comment about him and the project.

Click here to see more pictures of our protest at the Parliament House of Malaysia

The following were some of the achievements during the protest.

  1. We managed to achieve the following at the parliament picketing
  2. Distributed about 400 flyers to all passer-by going in and out of the Parliament
  3. Met up with Dato Shahrir, Chairman of Public Accounts Committee to present our case
  4. Press interview with ntv7
  5. Finally we managed to meet Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu on his way out of the Parliament

We hope the Minister would seriously look into our request this time.

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Letter to LLM on 14 key issues with very late reply

Posted by sripetaling.net in Correspondences, News & Developments, Residents Actions on September 18th, 2005

The Highway Residents Action Committee wrote a letter to the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) to seek clarification on how such a project is approved whereas Acts, bylaws and guidelines are breached in the process of project planning. Here are the main questions

Question 1

Under JKR’s guideline, a highway requires a minimum reserve width of 60m. The existing main road, Jalan 2/149, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling has only 32m width reserve, which does not fultill the above requirement.

Question 2

Under LLM’s guideline, all development areas are required to have a minimum setback (buffer sone) of 19m from the ROW of the highway. There is no buffer zone provided along Jalan 2/149 to separate the highway from the existing houses

Question 3

Under the National Land Code Act (Act 56 of 1956) section 5, buildings are defined as any structure on land. With respect to public health, safety and protection of urban environment, the Regulation Guidelines required minimum separation distances measured between buildings or structures to property boundaries. The elevated building structure of the highway which has a set back 6ft (2m) from the property boudaries along Jalan 2/149 can never comply with any Act, bylaws and guidelines.

Question 4

Under the Environment Act 1972, maximum levels of noise and air pollution are defined for residential areas. The cumulative noise and air pollution generated by the existing road and elevated highway would far exceed the levels permitted by the Act. To-date, we have yet to be convinced by the relevant authorities that mitigation measures to be taken could reduce the noise and air pollution levels to the compliance limits.

Question 5

Serious air pollution will pose hazard to health…

Question 6

Safety is threatened as car may ramp over or small object may fly over and injure residents’ at their backyard

Question 7

Residents request Government to acquire one row of houses west of the highway

Question 8

Disturbance during construction stage. eg dust and noise pollution…

Question 9

Bituminous spray on road pavement will affect health and belongings…

Question 10

Why alternative alignment is not studied and recommended in the EIA report?

Question 11

Why not change the highway alignment to follow Besraya or KL-Seremban Highway and bypass Bandar Baru Sri Petaling?

Question 12

Why distance between highway parapet and the residential houses which is only 2m are not stated in EIA report? Why the reports choose to indicate the distance to the kindergarten which is further away?

Question 13

Why 2003 Socio economic survey shown much higher disagreement on the project as compared to 1997 survey?

Question 14

Land gazetted for highway reserve has been approved for housing development, which the developer have build and sold to the public.

Here is the response we got from LLM. If you read through the response, its like a justification to commit a crime.

, , , , ,

No Comments