Five Bandar Baru Sentul residents today filed a suit against the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) mayor and construction company Kejuruteraan Bintai Kidenko Sdn Bhd for the ongoing development on the only green belt to more than 2,000 residents in the area.

Yee Foong Khuan, K Selva Kumar, Hasan Abd Rahman, Wan Samsudin Wan Mat Isa and Yazid Sulaiman representing the residence at Negeri Sembilan apartments, Menara Orkid apartments and the Bandar Baru Sentul apartments filed the suit with the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Among others, the suit claimed that the residents' objections were not fairly heard by the mayor, said their lawyer Mohd Yusmadi Mohd Yusof when met.

"The development on the disputed land is pursuant to the joint agreement between DBKL and Bintai Kidenko. Under the Federal Territory (Planning) Act (FTPA), any objection to any project needs to be done through an appeal board presided by the mayor. This would mean that he is considering his own application project!," he added.

Mohd Yusmadi said the residents hope that the court would concur with the argument and are seeking the court to declare the decision allowing the development as "null and void".

"If the court agrees with the residents on this score, we believe this would create a positive development to all Kuala Lumpur residents. DBKL - which has the statutory duty to put the residents interest in paramount - must carefully consider its position before entering into any joint venture agreement with any developer in the city," he added.

Cease all activities

In their 43-page statement, the five claimed that the disputed land (its size equivalent of three soccer fields) has been used by the residents since 1985 as for social and recreational activities.

They said until construction work to build three blocks of 25-storey condominiums known as Melur Apartments worth RM240 million started in 2003, the five public schools situated in the area were using the land for their annual sports day and other activities.

They claim that apart from the present apartment buildings in the area, there was no initial plans to develop the Melur apartments on the disputed land.

Instead, they alleged that the land was designated for the building of a stadium and a sports complex complete with a swimming pool.

However, the plans changed without the residents' knowledge following a new joint venture agreement between DBKL and Bintai.Kidenko, which injected between RM20-30 million of its funds to rescue the failing project from DBKL's former construction partner, GKM.Wilayah-Prescon Sdn Bhd.

"The plaintiffs were informed in a meeting in August 2003 with officials of the Batu member of parliament that all activities and recreational activities will cease on the land following the approval of the new project."

The residents immediately launched a protest and lodged their grievances with DBKL. They also sent memorandums of protest to the mayor, Prime Minister's Department and Housing and Local Government Ministry.

Stop-work order

"On Sept 13, 2003 after a meeting, the City Hall agreed to issue a stop work order to halt all construction works on the land and the promise was fulfilled on Nov 11, 2003."

However, the residents said Bintai Kidenko resumed construction works in January, 2004 stating that the stop-worker order has no legal effect and it has to complete the construction of the apartments to protect the interest of some 400 buyers.

"It is believed that the second defendant (Bintai Kidenko) breached the stop-work order as the order had neither been withdrawn nor revoked by City Hall. If the City Hall had indeed issued a withdrawal, it is alleged that they had no intention to inform the residents of the matter."

The residents also claimed that DBKL had committed a breach of substantive statutory obligations by denying them their right to object before approving any construction.

"The first defendant completely failed to regard to the already unreasonable population density of the constrained area where there are already 3,700 units of apartments. It also failed to take into account that with the approval of the new plan, the residents would have no recreational area."

They said DBKL also refused to consider that the loss of recreational area would lead to numerous social problems and heightened tensions among youths in the area.