This morning I had joined the protest and press conference organized by the Residents’ Association of Sri Petaling (SPRA) at the commercial centre of Sri Petaling. The residents were protesting against the proposed high rise buildings which will be built at the present hawkers’ centre.
This site was originally an open space for the commercial area and DBKL had planned to turn the place into a bus station. However, few years ago, the site was turned into a morning market and commercial centre despite strong objection from the residents’ association.
Recently, the hawkers and business people in that lot received eviction notice from DBKL. They were told to vacate by end of April. Some hawkers came to me for assistance as the notice is simply too short for them to move out.
I was very surprised this morning to find the information displayed on the sign board erected at the corner of the land shows that the land belongs to the mayor of Kuala Lumpur. I know this is not true as this piece of land was already sold by DBKL to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan in December 2013. Apparently the land has now been sold at higher price to a developer.
Sounds familiar? Ya….another case like Tun Razak Exchange land that was sold with lower price to 1MDB and 1MDB sold the land to investors with higher price…….
The SPRA chairman has checked with DBKL and found that two high rise buildings will be built at this site. Oh no…..I just can’t imagine how can the little commercial area accommodate a high rise project in the midst of such congested commercial centre……..sigh!! How not to protest?……
