Stakeholders and residents asking questions during the public hearing. — Photos: LOW LAY PHON/The Star
REPEATED assurances during a public hearing have not allayed the fears of Ladang Bukit Jalil (LBJ) residents that they will not lose their homes near 6½ Mile, Jalan Puchong in Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur Lands and Mines Office (PTGWP) officers said a recent notice proposing the degazettement of the land where the estate is situated, was not intended for any development or to displace the former rubber estate workers.
Ladang Bukit Jalil Estate Workers’ Action Committee secretary K. Balakrishnan said he was dissatisfied with the explanation given by PTGWP during an objection hearing.
“We want someone from a higher authority (the relevant ministry) to come forward and talk to us and give us some reassurance.
“On paper, we are squatting on the land that was only gazetted (public use) in 2009.
“The LBJ estate and residents have been on the land since the 1940s and we have no rights. This is wrong,” he told StarMetro.
The remaining families at the former estate are urging the government to build low-cost homes on the existing 1.6ha land which also houses a Hindu temple.
The objection hearing was regarding the degazettement of the Bukit Jalil land to realign and formalise the boundary between a Muslim burial ground and an Immigration depot in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
Hisham says there are no plans to develop the area or disrupt the livelihoods of the estate workers.
PTGWP technical enforcement sector deputy director Hisham Zulkifli said the degazettement was to address the boundary issue.
He also said there were no plans to develop the area or disrupt the estate workers’ livelihoods.
“We are here today to correct a wrong done many years ago, where the current Immigration depot building encroached into the Muslim burial ground during construction,” said Hisham.
“The purpose of this hearing is to legalise the building by degazetting the land and regazetting the new boundaries.”
The revocation exercise involves Lot 45585 – a 10.45ha parcel of land designated for public use, belonging to the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi).
“Following a decision by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Land Exco (JKTWPKL), we are now initiating the process to split the land into two plots.
“The land will be divided into Plot 1, reserved for the Islamic cemetery, and Plot 2, for the Immigration depot.
“The original land reserve, which was gazetted on Nov 5, 2009, as public use for Muslim cemetery will become smaller,” Hisham said.
Save Kuala Lumpur Coalition chairman Datuk M. Ali, who attended the objection hearing with his team, questioned how such blatant land encroachment could occur.
Hisham said the hearing was not to place blame but to correct the mistake.
StarMetro report on Oct 15.
LBJ Estate Residents Committee advisor S. Arutchelvan said LBJ was one of two plantations owned by the same company, Bukit Jalil Estate Agencies (Kinrara Group Estates Sdn Bhd).
“LBJ was acquired by the government, the other plantation remained under private ownership.
“The privately-owned Kinrara Estate provided its workers with land and built low-cost terrace houses, which they could purchase for as little as RM5,000. Facilities like the temple and schools were also preserved for the community.
“In contrast, the fate of workers at Ladang Bukit Jalil, the estate acquired by the government, has been less favourable.
“The irony is that had Ladang Bukit Jalil remained in private hands, the former workers could have enjoyed better benefits, like their counterparts in Kinrara Estate, and would now be living in landed properties,” said Arutchelvan.
