Perak govt accused of land abuse

PKR gives details of six cases of state land allegedly given to BN cronies

IPOH: PKR has accused the BN-led state government of what it called “abuse of state land”, providing details of six cases of alleged distribution of such land among Umno and MCA cronies.

Perak PKR vice chairman Chang Lih Kang told a news conference here yesterday that the party believed the six cases were only the “tip of the iceberg” and that it uncovered them by chance.

In the latest of the six cases, he said, the state gave three acres of land in Mukim Teja to Umno’s Gopeng division. The title was registered at the state land office on July 20, 2010.

“These six pieces of state land should have rightfully gone to the poor, landless and needy people, but instead they went into the hands of BN cronies.”

In the other five cases, the state administration gave:

• Ten lots of land in Kampung Sungai Itek, Gopeng, to Hamzah Mohd Kassim, who leads Umno Gopeng

• Fifty acres in Kampung Sungai Itek to Syarikat Safura House of Diamond, a company owned by Roslan Zakaria, who is Hamzah’s deputy in Umno Gopeng

• Plots of land in Kampung Tersusun Simpang Empat, Hutan Melintang, to several Umno branch heads and the secretary of an Umno division

• Three acres in Meru Jaya, valued at RM5 million each, to Umno and MCA

• A plot of prime land in Greentown to Umno.

Chang said PKR believed there were many other cases of such abuse.

“We do not have the luxury of getting inside information of such land abuse from the state land office,” he said. “We got information about these six cases only by chance.”

He said PKR had reported two of the cases to Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) but had yet to receive a response.

“I also raised the matter of such state land abuses at the last state assembly sitting, but no proper answer was given by the Menteri Besar.”

PKR is urging MACC to act on its reports and calling on Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir to step down from his post as chairman of the state land committee until the matter is resolved.

Chang suggested that the government allow Pakatan Rakyat representatives to sit on the land committee and form a special committee led by Pakatan representatives to investigate whether there have been abuses in land distribution in other parts of the state. - FMT