Residents upset over project in Sentul green belt

Sentul residents are questioning the move by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to approve the construction of a temporary auxiliary police beat base in a green belt.

Additionally, a letter from Batu MP P Prabakaran requesting an immediate suspension of the project was allegedly ignored by the authorities.

“We have already sent a number of letters of objection written by the residents to DBKL.

“Furthermore, Prabakaran had himself written a letter to Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad asking for the construction to be stopped immediately.

“However, no action has been taken,” Sentul resident S Linga Moorthy told Malaysiakini.

Earlier today, more than 300 residents from around Sentul sent another letter of objection to DBKL concerning the construction of the base near Sentul Boulevard, which appears to be nearing completion.

A local shop owner D Mahesh Kumar said that the construction work resulted in traffic congestion at the end of the school day.

He added that prior to the construction, the site was used for daily school sports activities, as a waiting area for students, and for tai chi exercises by local residents.

“Now, all of this has stopped since the temporary auxiliary police beat base was built,” he said.

Prabakaran had sent a letter of objection on July 11 to the Federal Territories Minister concerning the public’s objections towards the construction of the temporary police beat base, which is being undertaken by a private developer.

He had also appealed to the minister to issue a stop-work order for the project until discussions between the locals and developer were complete.

Another resident, L Manickam, also expressed his dissatisfaction about the traffic congestion.

Manickam said that the site was a convenient area for his child to wait to be picked up after school.

“However, now the site has been fenced off by the private company, which means that the schoolchildren have to wait by the road.

“This causes a traffic jam as parents have to wait on the main road,” he said.

Another Sentul resident, who only wanted to be identified as Bakri, also protested the construction of the auxiliary police beat base, saying that the area was previously used by students of the Dignity School Sentul for their daily activities.

“The students used that space for daily activities. Since ages ago, the space was used as an exercise area and where daily co-curricular activities would be carried out. But now, it is gone. There is no place left for the students to exercise,” Bakri said.

‘Take it to court’

Kuala Lumpur mayor Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz said any party who was dissatisfied with the temporary police beat base’s construction could take the issue to court.

According to him, the private developer had filed a proposal on Dec 5, 2017, to build a single-storey temporary police beat base along with a car park at the site.

He added that the application had been approved after no objections had been received from the owners of adjacent shop lots.

“This is the (relevant) information, which the minister knows about. They (the locals) can take this issue to court to challenge the decision made by DBKL,” the mayor added. -Mkini