Penang BN chief Teng Chang Yeow yesterday treated journalists to a meal of KFC ‘Twisters' to make his point that the chief minister had "twisted" his statements on public housing.

Lim Guan Eng has been "caught red-handed" on the issue of land for low-cost housing in Taman Manggis, claimed Teng.

Demonstrating how to eat KFC ‘Twisters' at a press conference, Teng (right) said that Lim is good at "twisting and turning".

NONE He took Lim to task for his statement last Thursday which had purportedly revealed that the Health Ministry had, on Oct 22, 2010, rejected a licence for a private hospital.

As a result of the rejection, the transfer of the land to a private company, Kuala Lumpur International Dental Corporation Sdn Bhd, which proposed to develop the hospital, could not proceed.

Teng said the online record from the One-Stop Centre under the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) showed that the company had submitted an application for planning permission only last year - on Sept 23.

"It makes no sense for the developer to submit the application for a licence to operate a private hospital if (its  application) had been rejected two years ago!" he exclaimed.

Teng, a former state executive councillor, questioned why Lim did not talk about this rejection when the issue of public housing on the land was first raised in June.

If the state BN coalition did not "expose" this matter, he said, the people would still be in the dark about the private hospital development, which included a 30-storey building, a 19-storey hotel, a six-storey hospital and a five-storey car park.

Land for poor sold to private companies

The issue was first highlighted when state BN Youth chief Oh Tong Keong revealed that state had sold land meant for housing for the poor to private companies.

Oh was referring to the second phase of a public housing project on a 0.45ha plot in Taman Manggis, off Jalan Burmah, which was scrapped by the DAP-led government and the land sold to a private developer to build a specialist medical centre.

The first phase of the project, he said, involved 320 housing units on a 1.86ha plot that were completed in 2005.

However, Oh's claim was rebutted by the state executive councillor in charge of housing, Wong Hon Wai, who said that - other than the 320 units - no application for "a phase two" public housing project at the site had been submitted to the MPPP between 2001 and 2008.

           

NONE Meanwhile, Teng denied that federal government had routinely refused licences for new hospitals in Penang.

Teng also said the Health Ministry had notified him that a private hospital licence had been approved for the Victoria Specialist Hospital in Jalan Zainal Abidin/Lorong Selamat on the island.

He said the state Economic Planning Unit was notified of the approval on June 5, five days before the issue was first exposed by the state BN Youth wing.

"It is not true to say that the federal government never approved any private hospital licence for the last four years when actually five hospitals had been approved," Teng added.

Other than the one in Jalan Zainal Abidin, hospitals have also been approved for construction in Kepala Batas and in Sungai Jawi on mainland Penang, and in Jalan Kedah and Jalan Masjid Negeri on the island, he added.

Over this period, 15 private hospitals had submitted 40 applications for extension and 36 had been approved, he added.