Temple relocation on court orders - Ganabatirau

The Selangor government never ordered the demolition of the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in USJ 25, Subang Jaya.

In saying this, V Ganabatirau, who is the chairperson of the State Socio-Economic Empowerment and Development and Caring Government Committee, said four parties, through a consent judgment on March 11, 2014, at the Shah Alam High Court, agreed to the relocation of the temple and return the present temple site vacant to the owner.

The four parties are the state government; owner of the temple site One City Development Sdn Bhd and two individuals claiming to be the temple administrators K. Chellappa and M. Nagaraju, he said.

Chellappa had filed an objection to the move by One City to take back the temple site in 1996.

Ganabatirau said that in the consent judgment, One City agreed to deposit RM1.5 million with the temple, and it is learned that the money was deposited with the temple lawyer.

The state government then handed over a 0.4-hectare piece of land, located about three kilometres away, for the relocation of the temple, he said at a press conference in Shah Alam today.

Ganabatirau said he believes that the relocation of the temple was politicised by some irresponsible people when the court decided that Chellappa is the valid administrator of the temple.

This decision was not agreed to by Nagaraju who objected to the relocation of the temple and alleged that the state government had ordered the demolition of the house of worship, he said.

“This is not true because the order to relocate the temple came from the court and the state government has to abide by the order,” he said.

- Bernama