Archive for category Press Coverage
My experiences with the Minister and the PAC
Posted by sripetaling.net in Correspondences, Press Coverage on June 22nd, 2006
Dear Editor,
My name is Lau Kien Foh and I’m the Chairman of Sri Petaling Residents Action Committee. This is my response to the article by Mr. R.Nadeswaran on “Heeding the call of the PAC” published on June 21.
Dear Nadeswaran,
I read your article on “Heeding the call of the PAC” yesterday. On behalf of the people whom their houses affected by the construction of the dedicated highway to Putrajaya, I can testify to your point raised in the article. I had the opportunity to “confront” the minister outside the Parliament and also the meeting with the minister in his office, where he invited almost 20 of his senior officials. My conclusion is “the man” belongs to different generation and has a different mind-set. He may be dedicated to his work and his boss, but he is definately not rational, not people sensitive and not reasonable. I’ve also highlighted in my letter to him that as a cabinet minister, his approach to delivery must be “holistic” and not “silo”. He must demonstrate the leadership role to ensure all government agencies are geared toward delivering projects that will not “victimise” the people.
On your comments for PAC, I totally agree with you. Again, I have the opportunity to work with the current PAC, led by Shahrir and his company. They are pro-active, rational and fact-based in its approach. I wish they could be given more resources to carry out their work.
However, on your point about the “secrecy” of the PAC hearings, I must point out to you that upon request, I was allowed by Shahrir to attend as an observer in one of their recent hearings (where the dedicated Putrajaya highway issue was discussed). I’m not sure whether it is open to the public but certainly, as an interested party, I find the hearings very informative and constructive. I also observed the professionalism demonstrated by the PAC members in understanding and discussing issues. What impressed me most was the discussion was totally non-politics and no “side-show” (as you may be aware that the PAC comprises MPs from both government and opposition parties).
If you wish to read more about our struggle, please visit www.sripetaling.net.
Lau Kien Foh
Chairman
Sri Petaling Residents Action Committee
KL-Putrajaya Highway Resident Update - Apr 2006
Posted by sripetaling.net in Events & Meetings, News & Developments, Press Coverage on April 30th, 2006
The following is the residents newsletter update…
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Dear fellow residents,
Thank you for attending our residents meeting held at the Sri Petaling Community Center. For those of you who missed our meeting, we wish to inform you the following outcome.
1. The concessionaire will be contacting individual house owner regarding the repairs. They will give you a proposal on how they intend to repair your house. You will need to negotiate the proposal with the concessionaire directly. The committee members will not be involved in the negotiation between you and the concessionaire unless necessary. Please bear in mind that they are suppose to restore your house to its original state. You are allowed to use your own contractor provided you notify them beforehand of the costs. If the repairs are done by the concessionaire, a warranty is included. For those of you who have done some repairs on your own, please keep the receipts so that you can make a claim later.
2. The survey forms circulated gathered the following responses. In total, 46% responses have been recorded from Jalan 1/149J while Zone N has a response rate of 68%. We will inform you of the results once we get more submissions. Please remind your neighbours to return the survey form to the Zone N guard house. We need the results to tell the authorities what our demands are as a single voice later.
3. Car stickers has been distributed during the meeting. Please put them on your cars to tell the authorities that our issue is not settled yet. We don’t want them to think that we have accepted the issue and have no intention to pursue further. If you need more stickers, please drop by Zone N’s guard house and request for them.
If you need to make any complaint to the concessionaire please call Ms Yati of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd at 012-3935075.
We shall be updating you more often as time permits.
Yours Sincerely,
Sri Petaling Zone N Residents Action Committee
Samy to meet Sri Petaling reps
Posted by sripetaling.net in News & Developments, Press Coverage on October 5th, 2005
From the desk of The Star
Wednesday October 5, 2005 Samy to meet Sri Petaling reps KUALA LUMPUR: The RM1.2bil Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya Highway project will go on but Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu will meet repesentatives of the Sri Petaling residents to find a way to resolve their problems. The Works Minister however said that because the highway was on Government land, compensation was out of the question for the residents who complained that the walls of their houses cracked due to the construction works. “We are not occupying the land. If we were to pay compensation, we would be setting a bad precedent,” he told newsmen after meeting Finland’s foreign trade and development minister Mari Kiviniemi at his office here yesterday. Samy Vellu said the ministry had written to the housing developer Seri Petaling Development in 1996 of its intention to acquire the land to build the Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya-KLIA Highway. (The Putrajaya-KLIA phase was later scrapped.) “Due to the economic crisis then, the construction of the highway was delayed but the developers went ahead with the houses,” he said. Samy Vellu said the Government had so far spent RM400mil on the highway which was expected to lighten traffic flow along the KL-Seremban Highway. He said noise barriers would be built along the boundary of the highway and the residential area to shut out the din from traffic.Minister blames residents for causing cracks in their own homes instead!
Posted by sripetaling.net in Citizen Suffers, News & Developments, Press Coverage on October 1st, 2005
Cracks begin to appear to the adjacent houses affected by the continuous piling and construction works. In a desperate attempt shed responsibility, the Minister of Works without any investigation puts the blame on the residents for causing the cracks in their own homes
Cracks in the homes …
Subsequently, the residents have agreed to appoint an independent body to investigate the cause of cracks. IKRAM was commissioned to conduct the study. The study results conclusively determined that the cause of cracks in the homes is due to the water table balance. This effect of caisson digging have pumped out the water from the ground which has destabilize the soil and cause the nearby homes to sink and crack!
Illustration on cause of crack in homes
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.
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Random Pictures
Highway Key Facts
26KM stretches from Kampung Pandan to Putrajaya
consession signed on 22 Oct 1997
adequate land was available then
resident wrote letter to LLM to advice them to ensure adequate buffer zone since there is land (1997)
project was shelved due to economic crisis
DBKL approved housing project when they should have reserved the land for highway
houses built and sold to unsuspecting buyers
land was 'lost' in the process due to authorities blunder
project is bulldozed through despite protest for safety
project is in breach of their own guidelinesIsn't it ironic?
LLM, DBKL, DOE say they are not aware about the sheer proximity of the highway to the homes!
A resident has written to the authorities way back in 1997 to realign the Right Of Way of the highway to utilize the undeveloped Zone N. [click here to see the letter and how it fell on deaf ears of the authorities]
The developer of Zone N (Petaling Garden Berhad) managed to obtain approval to build houses along a path of designated federal highway. How can that be?