Minister: Someone 'instigating' Dengkil residents

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan has said that someone is "instigating" the Dengkil residents to sleep in tents and not move into alternative housing.

Around 400 families have been sleeping in tents for over two months since a series of cracks forced them out of their federal government-built flats in Dengkil, Selangor on June 11.

Asked about this today, Abdul Rahman said: “I am very concerned, as far as this ministry is concerned we have been very responsible.”

"On the day we knew they were living in tents, we immediately sent a letter asking them to move to other housing in Bukit Jalil, the flat there is empty, but I believe someone is instigating them to stay in the tents.

"There are some people who are involved that are trying to score political mileage, I don’t appreciate that," he added.

Asked who were instigating the residents, he replied:"I will not speculate, you go look for yourselves."

Selangor yet to allocate land
Selangor exco overseeing the matter V Ganabatirao had said that on July 30, the state secretariat had offered 18 acres of land to the Housing Ministry but had been told it was unsuitable.

Last Wednesday, angry residents from the Taman Permata Dengkil Flats handed a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office setting a Sept 18 deadline for the federal government to resolve the issue.

Abdul Rahman hit back today, saying that earlier this month they had been told by Selangor that the land would be allocated but were not told where the land was.   

"How can we build if we don't know where? We replied to them saying 'where is the specific land', and we have not received a response," he said.

"You must remember even if we are to build this low-cost housing it would take two years, where will they stay (until then)?

"We are willing to extend our cooperation and I must remind Paktan Rakyat that they are the government of Selangor, they can't just play and throw all this at us because the land belongs to them," he added.