Opposition parliamentarian Tony Pua has urged MRT project owners to declare their "official position" on the statement that no land will be "forcibly acquired" for tunnelling works.

This comes on the heels of MRT Co chief executive officer Azhar Abdul Hamid's statement informing property owners affected by the project to take up its offer to relocate temporarily or face land acquisition.

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 tony pua 01 Pua ( right ) said that this contradicted Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Ahmad Maslan's statement that there will be no guarantee of "returning" the surface land rights to the respective owners.

"To remove any lingering doubts, the MRT Co should declare an official position that no surface land above tunnelling works for the MRT project will be forcibly acquired.

"And that land will be acquired strictly on the basis of the construction of MRT stations or its ancillary facilities such as air vents and access points.

"No parcel of land should be compulsorily acquired for the purposes of profit generation by the government," said the Petaling Jaya MP, in a statement issued today which also welcomed Azhar's comments for putting an end the 10-week controversy.

Contradiction mocks previous stand

However, he also said that Azhar's statement made a "mockery" of the stand earlier taken by Syarikat Prasarana Bhd - the previous owner of the multi-billion ringgit MRT project - that acquisition is necessary to start construction work.

According to Pua, Prasarana had stood firm that there is no provision under the National Land Code 1990 on how the MRT tunnel could be constructed without affecting ownership of the surface properties.

Residents and landowners of the century-old Chinese neighbourhood of Jalan Sultan have beeb locked in a dispute with the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad), over the acquisition of their properties for the construction of the underground tunnel as part of the MRT project.

NONE Pua said that the 1965 National Land Code was amended in 1990 to allow for the acquisition of underground land without affecting surface property.

"The U-turn by the Barisan Nasional government has proven time and again that the rakyat need to mobilise and speak up for their rights to ensure that they are not be victimised and the powers of the government abused," he said, referring to recent street rallies which had forced the government to pledge electoral reforms among others.

"It proves that civil and political pressure work to correct the wrongs and abuses, and hence more Malaysians must speak up and take part in activities to defend their basic rights and entitlements," said Pua.

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