It is impossible for the Selangor state government to allocate land to 72 longhouse residents from Rawang who claim to have been promised land 14 years ago, said Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo today.

He said the state government has done its best to offer each resident a flat at a special price of RM28,000, built by the state-owned company Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor (PKNS).

According to him, he 'forced' PKNS to handle the project after the previous developer declared bankruptcy.

"PKNS is a company which came in to save the project as the previous developer had gone bankrupt. The cost for a flat is RM57,000. PKNS is losing money by offering them the unit at RM28,000," he told a press conference after a meet-the-people session in Subang Jaya.

Elaborating, he said the state government is unable to offer land to them due to the increasing number of squatters in Selangor.

"They can refuse to accept the offer. Then we can open it and sell the houses to the public," he added.

The 72 residents were among 292 people who had been evicted from their squatter homes along the Sungai Buloh railway line in 1992.

They claimed to have received an official letter from the Gombak district office which promised land in Matang Pagar, also in Sungai Buloh, to build their houses.

In 2000, the residents filed a claim in court against the state government, Gombak land administrator and the Gombak land and mines office.

No discrimination

Meanwhile, Mohd Khir said there is no black and white agreement between the state government and the residents.

"It's just a letter. The land office cannot offer the land, only the state government can." he said.

He refuted the allegation that the state government practises a discriminative policy against the predominantly Indian residents.

"There is no discrimination.We treat all the squatters equally...I came in to solve the problem, they have no gratitude but are now accusing us," he said, adding that it is good the matter has been brought to court.

"This is because we have offered them the best. It is good, let the court decide," he said.

The residents today sent a legal notice to the PKNS office in Petaling Jaya, requesting the latter to stop the construction of flats in Matang Pagar over the next 10 days or face legal action.

"If we don't receive a written undertaking from PKNS in 10 days to stop the works on Bloc G, we will apply to the court to include PKNS as the fourth defendant in the case," stated the letter.

Pass it to state govt

However, PKNS declined to accept the terms in the letter, saying that it should be forwarded to the state government instead.

The residents, led by S Muniandy, who also heads the Rawang branch of Persatuan Masyarakat Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan, left the letter with PKNS press officer Mohd Wazir Abdul Gani.

Mohd Wazir told reporters later that PKNS will not take any action as the matter should be refered to the state government.

"We didn't receive the letter so we are not going to do anything. We are just getting instructions from the Selangor state government to build low-cost houses," he said.

The residents also plan to send a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) next week.

On Sunday, they lodged a police report against Mohd Khir.