'DBKL has no SOP on action at places of worship'

There are no special provisions governing the conduct of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) personnel who carry out enforcement at places of worship, according to the Federal Territories Ministry.

Deputy Minister Dr Loga Bala Mohan (left) said any provisions or standard operating procedure (SOP) will only be formulated in discussion with DBKL.

"Their SOP is general, there's no special provision for temples. There have been complaints about DBKL (personnel) wearing shoes (into places of worship), we admit that," he told a press conference at the ministry today.

Referring to the action taken at the Sri Muneswarar Kalyamman temple in Jalan P Ramlee on Sunday, he claimed that the part of the premises that was barricaded by the officers was “originally a canteen”.

"It's an annexure that had (statues of) deities placed there after last November. It's not a shrine per se," he said.
“After we started engaging with them (about relocation), they had started placing deities at what used to be the canteen. But this is not part of the temple shrine. This was more like a hall,” he said, referring to the annexure.

Loga Bala also said that DBKL officers did not demolish any deity but merely removed it and placed them elsewhere.

He said that the court order issued on July last year had not expired as claimed by certain quarters but was still in effect.

“A court order doesn’t expire,” he said.

He however gave an assurance that the remaining portions of the temple will be “beautified” and “gazetted” as temple land.

“I assure that we will not demolish any temples in Kuala Lumpur. This was in the BN manifesto and we will follow to that. The prime minister has told us to gazette the land as temple land,” he said.

He said that the ministry and DBKL would engage with the temple committee in order to gazette the temple, but said that the next move has to be initiated by the temple committee.

“After this, we wait for them to come and talk to us. We have already said that we are ready to beautify the temple,” he said.

He explained that the 8-feet annexure of the temple was needed in order to build proper drainage in view of the neighbouring development there.

“We decided that this was the best way to build the drainage,” he said.

“While with the hoarding now, it might look messy, but we will beautify it in the future. Even the developer, Hup Seng Consolidated Bhd, had agreed to bear the costs,” he said.

The temple, according to the committee, is 101 years old.

The authorities have offered to move the temple to Setapak since 2010 when Hup Seng was given a development order at its private land next to the temple, an idea rejected by the temple committee.

Subsequently, DBKL and the ministry had offered to only claim the 8-feet annexure of the temple.

Loga Bala said that DBKL and the ministry had conducted 43 engagements with the temple committee since 2010 before a cabinet decision was made on Aug 28 this year to claim the annexure.