Lim Guan Eng has been challenged to reveal the exco meeting minutes on Kampung Buah Pala to back his claim that BN is responsible for the matter.
GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been dared to reveal his executive council meeting minutes on Kampung Buah Pala to prove that he did not rob the village land from poor Indians.
The village residents association chairman M Sugumaran called for the exco minutes to be declassified to substantiate Lim’s claim that it was the previous Barisan Nasional, and not the current Pakatan Rakyat, state government that was responsible for the eventual sale and demolition of the heritage Indian village.
“Lim should declassify the exco minutes to prove that he was honest and sincere in our village issue,” Sugumaran told a press conference here today.
Sugumaran’s family was among the nine Kampung Buah Pala residents who were left in a lurch after their village houses were demolished in September 2009.
The nine received their new double-storey house keys from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on Sunday. The Putrajaya administration also gave out another nine double-storey houses in Taman Sejahtera Indah, Teluk Air Tawar, for the nine’s extended families. The houses were given on humanitarian grounds, and not as compensation.
Last October, 24 other families who agreed to a deal brokered by the Pakatan state government with the developer, were handed over keys to new double-storey houses as part of their compensation.
The deal however excluded the nine families who had not accepted the offer.
Under the compensation package for the 24 families, the developer had agreed to the state’s request to share a portion of the land with the residents by offering the houses, each with a built-up area of 1,400sq ft and a 99-year lease. A community hall and a temple are also being built there for the residents.
Kampung Buah Pala, which was known commonly as Tamil High Chaparral due to the population of ethnic Indians, cattle and other live stocks, was demolished to pave way for a posh condominium project, the Oasis, by Nusmetro Venture (Pg) Sdn Bhd.
During the height of the Kampung Buah Pala fiasco in 2009, Lim’s administration only declassified the previous BN exco minutes on the village issue.
Land alienated to cooperative
The previous minutes revealed that the village land was alienated to the civil service cooperative society –
Koperasi Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang – for RM3.21 million in 2005 to pave the way for the Oasis project. According the documents, the cooperative had paid RM963,000 as deposit to alienate the land.
The previous government had set a condition for the cooperative to completely settle the compensation issue of the residents to facilitate the transfer of the land title.
The minutes revealed that the remainder RM2.247 million was settled on March 14, 2008 – a week after Lim had become the chief minister.
The land was transferred by the state government to the cooperative on March 27, 19 days after Pakatan captured the Penang government in the March 8 general election. But the transfer was done even though the long-staying villagers’ compensation issue was not settled.
Sugumaran claimed Lim had hatched a fresh land deal with the cooperative after the original BN deal had lapsed.
“Lim should reveal the minutes to prove his innocence,” he dared.
GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has been dared to reveal his executive council meeting minutes on Kampung Buah Pala to prove that he did not rob the village land from poor Indians.The village residents association chairman M Sugumaran called for the exco minutes to be declassified to substantiate Lim’s claim that it was the previous Barisan Nasional, and not the current Pakatan Rakyat, state government that was responsible for the eventual sale and demolition of the heritage Indian village.
“Lim should declassify the exco minutes to prove that he was honest and sincere in our village issue,” Sugumaran told a press conference here today.
Sugumaran’s family was among the nine Kampung Buah Pala residents who were left in a lurch after their village houses were demolished in September 2009.
The nine received their new double-storey house keys from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on Sunday. The Putrajaya administration also gave out another nine double-storey houses in Taman Sejahtera Indah, Teluk Air Tawar, for the nine’s extended families. The houses were given on humanitarian grounds, and not as compensation.
Last October, 24 other families who agreed to a deal brokered by the Pakatan state government with the developer, were handed over keys to new double-storey houses as part of their compensation.
The deal however excluded the nine families who had not accepted the offer.
Under the compensation package for the 24 families, the developer had agreed to the state’s request to share a portion of the land with the residents by offering the houses, each with a built-up area of 1,400sq ft and a 99-year lease. A community hall and a temple are also being built there for the residents.
Kampung Buah Pala, which was known commonly as Tamil High Chaparral due to the population of ethnic Indians, cattle and other live stocks, was demolished to pave way for a posh condominium project, the Oasis, by Nusmetro Venture (Pg) Sdn Bhd.
During the height of the Kampung Buah Pala fiasco in 2009, Lim’s administration only declassified the previous BN exco minutes on the village issue.
Land alienated to cooperative
The previous minutes revealed that the village land was alienated to the civil service cooperative society –
Koperasi Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang – for RM3.21 million in 2005 to pave the way for the Oasis project. According the documents, the cooperative had paid RM963,000 as deposit to alienate the land.
The previous government had set a condition for the cooperative to completely settle the compensation issue of the residents to facilitate the transfer of the land title.
The minutes revealed that the remainder RM2.247 million was settled on March 14, 2008 – a week after Lim had become the chief minister.
The land was transferred by the state government to the cooperative on March 27, 19 days after Pakatan captured the Penang government in the March 8 general election. But the transfer was done even though the long-staying villagers’ compensation issue was not settled.
Sugumaran claimed Lim had hatched a fresh land deal with the cooperative after the original BN deal had lapsed.
“Lim should reveal the minutes to prove his innocence,” he dared.
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