Works Minister S Samy Vellu did not seek approval to declassify toll concession agreements at last Wednesday's cabinet meeting despite stating otherwise.

According to an Oriental Daily report today, the minister had only blasted the opposition during the meeting for blowing the toll hike issue out of proportion.

Quoting sources within the cabinet, the report claimed that the agreements issue was hardly mentioned during the meeting.

"Samy Vellu only railed at the opposition for playing up the issue. Cabinet members, on their part, did not discuss the declassification of toll concessions," a source was quoted as saying.

On Monday, the works minister told reporters that he is seeking the cabinet's approval to declassify the documents. The agreements are classified under the Officials Secrets Act (OSA).

"I raised the issue at the last cabinet meeting and the prime minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) has asked for a Cabinet paper on it to be submitted," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Samy Vellu also said he had consulted the Attorney-General's Chambers for the preparation of the Cabinet paper.

Was it made up?

The minister was responding to de-facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who told reporters that the cabinet has no problems with declassifying the agreements.

Both Samy Vellu and Nazri could not be reached for comments as they are on workings trips to Uganda and Romania respectively.

In another related report, Oriental Daily quoted Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) information chief Tian Chua as suggesting that the declassification issue was made up by Samy Vellu.

Tian Chua is one of four opposition leaders being investigated under the OSA for exposing a toll concession agreement at a recent press conference.

"Either Nazri is not a cabinet member, if not why he did not raise the issue during the meeting, or Samy Vellu's statement was wrong and the question of declassification was not raised.

"[If it is the second scenario] the whole issue of declassification was made up by Samy Vellu," he was quoted as saying by the Chinese daily.