By B Nantha Kumar - Free Malaysia Today,KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcement officers today demolished a place of worship and also deprived the land owner of her livelihood by destroying her jasmine farm in Setapak.
Kasiyammah Perumal, 55, said that about at 10.30am a group of DBKL enforcement officers in three vans arrived at her farm and wanted to demolish the place of worshship.
"They brought along a bulldozer. I was shocked because I did not receive notices or reminders of any sort from the authorities," said Kasiyammah.
She then showed the officers a letter issued by Deputy Minister of Federal Territories and Urban Well-being M Saravanan, giving her the approval to use the two and half acre land.
"When I showed the letter, one of the officers said, 'surat ini tak laku. Buang saja' (this letter is of no value. Just throw it).
"Even though I pleaded with them to give me time to remove my plants, they ignored me and proceed to destroy the plants which was worth RM10,000," added Kasiyammah.
When the enforcement officers started destroying the place of worship and broke an idol housed within using hammer, it was too much to bear for her and she fainted.
She found the structure completely demolished when she recovered, and to rub salt into her wound, one officer allegedly told her: "Don't worry, your god will help you."
Kasiyammah said she had been running her jasmine flower business in Setapak for nearly 25 years by cultivating them on her plot.
"I don't know where else I can secure my income now that my plants have been destroyed," she said forlornly.
"Their way to destroy this place was so repulsive and made me angry. Several of them kicked the statues I had installed inside my house of worship.
Kasiyammah said she was also disappointed with deputy minister Saravanan who did not answer her calls today.
"We telephoned him more than 30 times, but he did not respond. We trusted him and he has let us down," Kasiyammah.
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