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Friday 28 June 2013

Reprieve for temple

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's curiosity over a suit against the government has momentarily 'saved' a 110-year-old temple in Jalan P Ramlee from demolition.
UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR: A planned demolition of a temple by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was halted after it was discovered that a developer company was suing the federal government for the same land.

The Muneswarar Kaliamman temple in Jalan Tengah off Jalan P Ramlee received a reprieve due to an intervention by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

PPP information chief A Chandrakumanan told reporters that Najib wanted to know why the developer was suing the government for the land on which the 110 year old temple sits.

Chandrakumanan said that he had briefed Tengku Adnan and Najib on the issue yesterday and they had expressed curiosity at the situation.

“The prime minister wants to know why the land developer Hap Seng filed a suit against the government in its bid to obtain the temple land.

“Until and unless they explain the purpose of the suit they cannot demolish the land,” said Chandrakumanan who had a letter signed by Tengku Adnan forbidding DBKL from demolishing the temple.

Earlier, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, P Waythamoorthy, questioned the legality of demolition notice issued by Land and Mining Department.

“The notice has no signature and it is not generated by a computer. It states action is to be taken under state law but this land is a federal government land.

“The notice also does not state under what provision of the law can this temple be demolished,” said Waythamoorthy at a press conference.

The temple currently sits on a DBKL reserve land. In July last year, Hap Seng whose company office is located next to the temple filed a suit against DBKL in a bid to obtain the land for a development project.

PKR’s Kapar MP G Manivannan, meanwhile, criticised Waythamoorthy’s inability to resolve the issue at hand.

“As a deputy minister in charge of Indian affairs, he should be able to issue a letter to stop the demolition and yet he comes here, empty handed to show support for the temple,” said Manivannan.

Also present today was PKR’s human rights and legal bureau deputy chief S Jayathas. He was among the first who raised the alarm over the plight of the temple when he was Hindraf Makkal Sakthi’s information chief two years ago.
- See more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/06/27/reprieve-for-temple/#sthash.KcTLTBwR.dpuf

1 comment:

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