Villagers submit protest memorandum over ECRL alignment to Najib

The villagers want the alignment shifted so it will not cut through their land and affect houses, fish cages and a cemetery.

Zaini (centre, in pink shirt) and village head Kamaral Ariffin Aliasak (left) speaking with Najib after handing over their memorandum to the prime minister today.

PETALING JAYA: A group of villagers from Temerloh in Pahang today handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister Najib Razak pleading for a change of alignment of the RM55 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) to bypass their village.

A spokesman for the group from Kampung Tanjung Batu, Zaini Abd Aziz, said they waited several hours at an event attended by Najib at Kuala Krau in Temerloh before succeeding in passing the memorandum to him.

“We managed to meet him for less than five minutes. He received the memorandum and told us he would study the contents. He said he could not speak to us for long because he was in a rush to get to Parliament.

“The prime minister acknowledged the issue involved the land grant for a mukim, meaning there are many title holders. We hope he will accept our protest,” he told FMT in the presence of about 50 of his fellow villagers.

Zaini said the current ECRL alignment was proposed by the Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd, the special purpose vehicle set up to implement the project, and the state-owned China-based builder, China Communication Construction Company (M) Sdn Bhd (CCCC).

He said the alignment would require the acquisition of a large tract of land in their village and will affect 29 houses, 120 fish cages and a cemetery.

“The previous alignment only affected one sand factory but the MRL and CCCC insist on going ahead with the new alignment,” he said.

“Even though we have been promised compensation, it would not offset the hardship caused and the economic loss as well as our comfort.”

He alleged that despite being ordered not to enter the land for the time being since last November, CCCC continued to excavate on the land.

The ECRL project, covering 688km from Port Klang in Selangor to Tumpat in Kelantan, is an infrastructure project aimed at changing the economic face of the east coast. -FMT