Spare our temple, Kedah group pleads with town council

The new Sri Maha Mariamman Temple under construction at Ladang Pinang Tunggal in Sungai Petani, Kedah.

SUNGAI PETANI: A religious group has pleaded with the Sungai Petani Municipal Council not to demolish their partially-built temple which the council says was constructed without permission.

Construction began on the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in February on a 0.4 hectare piece of private land near Bandar Seri Astana Fasa E, a residential area some 10km south of here.

The town council said the construction was carried out without its permission, and served notice on the land owners on June 15.

The temple’s supporters said the council had refused to consider appeals by the temple committee.

Ratnam Kuppu.

Temple committee chief Ratnam Kuppu said the site was given to the committee after the land on which the original 100-year-old temple was built at Ladang Pinang Tunggal (formerly Bawali estate), about 500m away, was bought over by a developer.

He said the land was given after a consent judgment by the High Court in January, about 10 years after another site was offered by the developer, but was fiercely opposed by residents nearby.

“We did not want to offend anyone, so we asked the developer for another site. After 10 years, we were given this land three TNB poles away from the earlier site offered to us in 2010,” Ratnam told FMT.

“Now, when our new temple is nearly completed, we are served with a notice to demolish it. We were told by the council that 52 people had petitioned against the temple being built.

“Are we to wait another 10 years for a new plot of land?”

He said devotees had continued to pray at the old temple until the new one was completed as it was the only temple in the area.

Ratnam said the temple committee had left it to the developer to obtain the necessary approvals from the council as the land still belongs to the developer on paper. He said only land owners may apply for permission from the council.

The 100-year-old Sri Maha Mariamman Temple will be cleared by the land owners once the new temple is completed.

A council letter sent to the temple committee’s lawyer, sighted by FMT, stated that the council was not bound by the court order but it was within its authority to enforce building laws.

It said the temple committee had not applied for planning permission before the construction of the temple and hence it was illegal.

Local Government Committee chairman Hayati Othman said he would only comment after getting more details from the municipal council.- FMT