Thursday, January 24, 2013

Ex-Umno division chief: Houses for public interest



Former Kota Raja Umno chief Amzah Umar has denied any wrongdoing over the latest allegations of a land-grab scandal in Section 25, Shah Alam, saying that the medium-cost apartments are meant for public interest. 

He said it provides members of public with housing. When pressed for details on how it differs from a for-profit development, he said Umno members could get a 12 percent discount at the apartments. 

“We give a seven percent discount for bumiputra buyers and 12 percent for Umno members, if I am not mistaken,” he said when contacted today.

NONEAmzah (left), who was also Sri Muda assemblyperson at the time when the land deal was struck, was responding toallegations made by Selangor select committee on land and district offices (Padat) chairperson Ng Suee Lim and committee member Shuhaimi Shafiei today.
The expose today is part of Ng’s efforts to reveal 24 plots of land allegedly sold cheaply to BN component parties when the coalition was in control of Selangor. 

State opposition members including Selangor Umno information chief Abdul Shukor Idrus have previously rebutted that the cheap land was meant for ‘community purposes’, such as building community halls and kindergartens.

Commenting further on today’s expose, Amzah said everything has been going according to plan and in accordance with an agreement with the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) and there is no plot to use the local authority to expedite the development as alleged. 

“What scandal? It is all in the plan. You can check with MBSA, the state government, or the district officer, everything is in order,” he said. 

When it was pointed out that there are only apartments in the plans Ng showed to members of the press and no sign of a sports and recreation complex that was initially proposed, he said this is between MBSA and the developers and he does not know under which phase it would be built. 

He also denied that there is “anything unusual” in that the Umno division and MBSA only paid RM1,000 in land premiums, claiming that many other organisations also applied to the state government to pay only a nominal fee, or no fee at all. 

Once land is granted, he said it is Umno’s right as the landowner to develop it as it sees fit.

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