Kohilan cannot exonerate himself, says MPS councillor

An incumbent councillor with the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) has refuted Deputy Foreign Minister A Kohilan Pillay's claim that he played no role in approving the controversial 29-storey condominium near the iconic Batu Caves temple.

According to Kohilan (right), when he was serving as a local councillor in Selayang, he was not part of MPS' One Stop Centre (OSC) which gave the green light to the project.

However, MPS councillor Lee Khai Loon said that all approvals from the OSC must be endorsed by the council before the projects can be executed.

Lee said the role of the OSC in the local council was to facilitate the application process for development projects and to cut down on red tape.

"Usually, there are three to four councillors in the OSC. Representatives of other government agencies also sit in it."

However, Lee stressed that all approvals by the OSC must be endorsed by the full board meeting of the MPS, which consists of all the councillors, before the projects can be implemented.

"Applications approved by the OSC are not final without the endorsement of the full board meeting. They will not be valid and cannot be executed," he told Malaysiakini when contacted yesterday.

Kohilan told Malaysiakini on Tuesday that he had nothing to do with the approval of the Dolomite condominium project because he did not sit on the OSC during his tenure as MPS councillor.

"I was only a councillor. It was not me who gave the approval. It was the OSC in the council that gave the approval. I was not involved," Kohilan said.

Lee (right) pointed out that even if Kohilan did not sit in the OSC, there were other BN councillors in it, representing the ruling coalition at that time.

"Did the other BN councillors in the OSC raise questions then?

"The full board meeting might have overlooked the project and approved it as there could have been too many project approvals to be endorsed. But why didn't they raise the issue after that?

"The shophouses, which are part of the development project, have already been completed, but we did not see them protesting before last week," Lee said.

Kohilan was an MPS councillor for 11 years, serving from 1997 to 2008.

Police reports lodged 

The plan for the massive condominium project near the iconic Sri Subramaniar Temple in Batu Caves came under the spotlight after the temple committee, backed by MIC top guns including former president S Samy Vellu, led a protest against the Selangor government last Friday.

However, Selangor executive councillor Ronnie Liu subsequentlyrevealed documentsto show the BN government had in 2007 approved the condominium project - considered by many to be an eyesore to the locality - when it controlled Selangor.

Liu was reported as saying that Kohilan and Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan were among those responsible for approving the condominium project.

However, both Kohilan and Kamalanathan have denied the accusation and lodged police reports on the matter.