Kiara park will remain as it is, says FT minister

Residents are challenging a development project at Taman Awam Rimba Kiara in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

PUTRAJAYA: Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa today assured Taman Tun Dr Ismail residents the public park in their neighbourhood will not be sacrificed for development.

He said that based on records, the Taman Awam Rimba Kiara cannot be touched as it is  government land and the National Landscape Department is maintaining the park.

“However, there was a dispute over the plot of land beside the public park. The land belongs to Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan and they wanted to build apartments for those longhouse residents who have been living on the yayasan’s land for many years.

“This (land) issue is now before the courts and it is not appropriate to discuss the development until a decision has been made,” he said in a Facebook video today.

Annuar said his statement on Sunday on the construction of apartment units for longhouse residents was merely repeating the foundation’s pledge for the residents to have their own homes.

The TTDI residents’ group had accused him of making a sub judice statement as their challenge to the project is still pending at the Court of Appeal.

The residents said they had been issued letters on legal action by developer Malton Group and the foundation on public discourse on the proposed development project.

They are challenging the so-called Taman Rimba Kiara project, consisting of a 29-storey apartment block with 350 units of affordable housing, as well as eight blocks of serviced apartments and eight storeys of parking facilities.

Former minister Khalid Samad renegotiated the deal with the developer and came up with a scaled-down version of the project that saw the number of residential units being halved, but the deal was rejected by the residents led by Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh.

Annuar said he was willing to listen to the views of the residents. “In fact, I was supposed to meet the Segambut MP (Yeoh) and residents today but they requested for the meeting to be postponed.

“It is all right with me, come whenever you are free,” he said, adding that the public park issue should not be politicised. -FMT