FORMER EXCO SLAMS PENANG GOVERNMENT OVER KAMPUNG BUAH PALA

July 15, 2009 18:50 PM

PENANG, July 15 (Bernama) -- A former Penang state executive councillor on Wednesday slammed the state leadership for always blaming the previous state leadership over the issue of selling the Kampung Buah Pala land in Gelugor when they themselves finalised the matter last year.

Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan, the former state local government and traffic management committee chairman, said the new state government may not be aware that they approved the decision of the previous administration when they concluded the land title to the Penang Government Officers Cooperative about 19 days after winning in the March 2008 general election.

"As soon as they took over the state, the opposition pact signed a transfer letter to the cooperative on March 27, 2008," Dr Teng told reporters after launching a Purple Ribbon Campaign to fight violence at the state Gerkan headquarters here.

Dr Teng, who is also Penang Gerakan chairman, said the new state government also accepted the balance of the land premium of RM2.47 million on March 14, 2008 and on May 23 of the same year and the state exco decided not to grant a 50 per cent discount to the new owners of the land and asked for the balance.

"This shows that the opposition government actaully took steps to finalise the decision of the previous government. If they were really serious, the state government could have used the opportunity to make a new decision and not finalise the land title," he said.

Dr Teng said the previous state government took a long time to approve the land sale to the cooperative although receiving an application from the cooperative in 2001 as they wanted to look out for the welfare of the residents involved.

According to him, two previous executive councillors, P.Subbaiyah and Datuk Koay Kar Huah, were involved in championing the compensation for the residents.

The previous government gave a 50 per cent discount on the land premium from RM6.42 million to RM3.21 million as the cooperative's land beside Dewan Sri Pinang was taken for a court complex in exchange for the Kampung Buah Pala land.

Besides the cooperative also needed to pay compensation to the residents to be relocated and the developer was to give a seven per cent discount to cooperative members who would buy houses that would be built later.

-- BERNAMA