Land and district offices in Perak have no power to send eviction notices nor order demolition of a place of worship without the consent of the state executive council.

m moorthy 301205 a sivanesan Former Pakatan Rakyat executive councillor A Sivanesan, ( left ) who was in charge of Indian Affairs during the former's 10-month rule of the state, said this today.

"No local council or land office could issue notices under Section 425 of the National Land Code without prior consent of the executive council," said Sivanesan.

The policy was introduced to ensure that places of worship are not demolished by trigger-happy authorities, as practised by the BN during its 52-year of rule of the state, he said.

He said the policy was not only discussed by the state executive council, it had also received the royal consent of the Perak Sultan Azlan Shah.

According to Sivanesan, every Monday, the weekly minutes of the executive council's proposals was first sent to the Sultan for his attention.

The then menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin will seek an audience with the Sultan on Wednesday morning for his assent just before the exco meets, he said.

"So this place of worship ruling is still in force unless the BN state government has already cancelled this state policy, "he said.

‘ Public should be informed'

He said even if the BN state government had cancelled this people-friendly policy, then it is their duty to inform the public about this turn-around.

r ganesan 130509 Yesterday, speaker R Ganesan ( right ) told Malaysiakini that the BN state government will never demolish any temple without prior consent of the temple committee.

Ganesan's statement was in response to a claim by ousted assembly speaker V Sivakumar that a 100 year-old Hindu temple faces demolition.

The Sri Maha Kaliamman, situated along Jalan Tanjung Tualang in Batu Gajah, had been given a 14-day notice to vacate by the Batu Gajah district office.

Sivanesan ticked off Ganesan for his meddling in the matter as he is not even in the exco and was only appointed and not elected to the post.

He alleged that Ganesan did not know of the Pakatan temple policy and is just shooting off his mouth on matters that he is ignorant of.

He advised temple committees in the state not to be bullied by such local authorities and to stand up and fight for their legal rights of their places of worship.