The group of stakeholders around Jalan Sultan is will be organising a public consultation session with relevant government agencies regarding the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project on Saturday.

NONE Chairperson Stanley Yong ( right ) of the organiser, Preservation of Jalan Sultan Committee (PJSC), said that his committee is responding to public calls for the sessions.

He said the GLC charged with executing the MRT’s construction had not given the public the chance to air their grievances, but had instead set up a website to answer them.

“We have gone through the website and we found there are a lot of allegations as well as answers that are fundamentally wrong and very, very misleading.

“So much so that the public has therefore approached PJSC to facilitate the carrying out of a public consultation,” he said.

Yong said the agencies invited in letters sent on June 27 include the MRT Corp, Prime Minister’s Department, Tourism Ministry, Information, Communication and Culture Ministry, and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, but he has yet to receive a response.

NONE When asked what if the invitation was turned down, he said that the event, scheduled for 3pm at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH), would go on with Jalan Sultan’s stakeholders alone.

“I think it will be turned into an event where questions, grievances, complaints and worries, will be collected and we will make use of that opportunity for the public to review and to look at the matter from all directions,” said Yong, who is also the KLSCAH secretary-general.

He also said it would be a “great insult” to the public if the government agencies do not turn up, and they would lose credibility.

Selangor MB yet to respond

At the press conference, Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun added in response to a question from the floor, that the Selangor government has yet to respond to PJSC’s calls for its intervention.

However, he said Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim has met MRT Corp on the matter.

save jalan sultan protest 060512 16 In addition, he said the announcement of the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 has been postponed to February 2013 to allow for, among others, the implementation of the MRT project.

Also present at the press conference were Gospel Hall Church elder Jimmy Chok and Lok Ann Hotel owner Thomas Tan, as well as representatives from Yan Keng Benevolent Dramatic Association - whom are all located near MRT’s proposed tunnels, and several clan associations.

The 51-kilometre rail project was to run beneath Jalan Sultan, but some locals have opposed the plan, fearing that it would damage historical buildings around the area, and called for an alternative route .

However, MRT Corp had insisted that the current proposed route is optimum.

And while the agency has backed down on its earlier intention to acquire private land that the MRT is to run under, landowners are still unhappy that in return they are required to temporarily vacate their premises and give temporary land rights to MRT.

MRT Corp has promised to return the properties to the owners after the tunnel below their properties is completed, but some owners are not convinced.

They are concerned that their properties might eventually be acquired by MRT Corp after the construction. Negotiations between both sides has reached a standstill.

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