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| Guan Eng to invoke land code to halt demolition |
| Written by Regina William | |||
| Wednesday, 08 July 2009 16:41 | |||
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Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who is under pressure from the villagers and other parties who have jumped on the bandwagon to fight for the residents, said the state government will invoke Section 116 of the National Land Code, which requires the developer to have written permission from the state authorities before demolishing the houses. Lim said this at a press conference, which was attended by Bar Council Legal Aid Centre counsel Cecil Rajendra, who was among the lawyers who acted on behalf of the residents throughout their debacle, including the legal battle which they lost. Also present were Deputy Chief Minister 1 Dr Mansor Othman, DCM2 P Ramasamy, Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh and Seri Delima state assemblyman RSN Rayer, who have also been involved in the tussle between the developer and the residents since the onset. "Though the developer has vacant possession of the land, there is no written consent from the state government to demolish the houses. "Cecil will write to me on this matter and I will direct the land administrator to write to the courts on this aspect," he added. Cecil meanwhile said the action to invoke Section 116 was not to question the Federal Court decision granting vacant possession of the land, but to protect the houses from being demolished. Before the press conference, a group of affected residents were supposed to meet Lim and the executive councillors for a discussion, but it did not materialise when the residents demanded that another lawyer, Darshan Singh, be allowed into the discussion as well. This resulted in the planned meeting being aborted when the residents were adamant and refused to budge. At the press conference, Cecil said the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre had been given the warrant to act by the 300 residents right from the beginning in 2007 even before the case was filed in court and hence said he would continue to represent the residents while Darshan had yet to show the warrant to act on behalf of the residents. Lim meanwhile took a swipe at former chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon and his team of executive councillors for "robbing the residents" and selling them out. "Why are the residents hitting out at this state government which has nothing to do with what happened, as it was Koh and his team of bandits who robbed them?" Lim said. "This state government has only been trying to help them, even those from the DAP who tried to help them when the case first came up, even before it went to court. "Despite the court decision, we are still trying to help them but the residents should not blame us for the predicament they are in, it is not our fault. "There are some parties which are trying to cash in on this matter and focusing on pushing the residents against the state government," he added. To allegations by some of the residents that his state government had finalised the deal with the developer, Lim said the state government has not had any dealings with the developer. "The developer settled the final premium on the land totalling RM3.2 million on March 14 last year, but this is an administrative matter, which never comes to my attention. "I did not know anything about this as the deal was already inked with the previous state government, twice, in writing, once in 2004 and 2005," Lim stressed. He reiterated the state government's intention of having a "heart to heart" talk with the residents instead of a confrontational manner, minus other unrelated parties. Lim said the state government would also push for the RM200,000 compensation for each affected family from the developer, if the residents were keen on accepting the compensation, which was higher than the RM90,000 which was offered previously. The Kampung Buah Pala case dates back to August 2004 and July 2005, when the previous state executive council reportedly approved the sale of the land at a premium of RM20 a sq ft or RM6.42 million. In 2007, the executive council halved the premium. The land was supposed to have been given to the Koperasi Pegawai Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang in exchange of a plot of land, which was used to build the newer court buildings along Light Street recently. The residents had sued the cooperative and the developer, Nusmetro Ventures (P) Sdn Bhd and the High Court ruled in their favour in October last year. The decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on May 11, giving the cooperative and Nusmetro vacant possession and the villagers took the case to the Federal Court, which also dismissed their case in June 14 on grounds that the villagers did not have locus standi.
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