Mayor tells builder to stop all work in PJ

The decision comes after residents threatened with eviction complain to the Selangor government.

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SHAH ALAM: Petaling Jaya City Hall (MBPJ) will today order real estate developer Peter Brickworks Sdn Bhd to stop work on all its projects within the city.

This was the promise that Selangor exco Ronnie Liu and Petaling Jaya mayor Roslan Sakiman gave to residents of PJS 1, whom Peter Brickworks has threatened to evict because it is building a condominium complex there.

Fifty of the residents went to the Selangor state government office at 9 this morning and submitted a memorandum complaining about the eviction notice. Their representative, M Sugumaran, subsequently had an hour-long meeting with Liu and Roslan. Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar, a prominent social activist, was also at the meeting.

The decision to issue the stop-work order was announced at a press conference after the meeting.
Sugumaran said Peter Brickworks issued eviction notices to two residents on May 23, asking them to move out by May 23. This was despite promising the residents on April 22 that it would not do so until it had discussed the issue with them, he added.

The 27 families living in PJS 1 have been dealing with Peter Brickworks since 2003, when it asked them to move out of Kampung Pinang, Kampung Petaling Tin and Kampung Muniandy with a promise that it would build low-cost flats for them. However, it has not been able to build the flats because residents at the proposed site, which is close to PJS 1, have obtained a court injunction against eviction.

Sugumaran said Liu telephoned someone at Peter Brickworks during this morning’s meeting to persuade the company to retract the eviction notices and have a discussion with PJS 1 residents.

“However, they refused to budge,” he said. “Then after some deliberation, Roslan said he would issue a stop-work order by the end of the day.”

He added that Liu also promised to hold a meeting between the residents, the developer and the Selangor exco for housing, building management and squatters, Iskandar Abdul Samad, once the latter returns from overseas.
 

Jeyakumar said the residents were still in danger of getting their homes demolished because other authorities might ignore the mayor’s stop-work order.

“We will lodge a police report against the developer later today,” he said. “We will tell the police that a stop-work order will be issued against the developer so that they will not assist them on Monday.”