Exasperated with procedural irregularities in the Broga incinerator issue, an action committee member is urging the Shah Alam High Court not to further postpone the hearing of their case.


 <img align="left" height="200" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/31/d98fd5cb96ab23516dbb2716992a2bed.jpg" width="180"/>
 Kampung Broga resident Alice Lee (
 
 left
 
 ) said the matter has been postponed three times since last year.


 "The case has been postponed so many times because the government has failed to answer our claims. We hope the judge will not postpone our case again," she added when contacted.


 On Feb 14 last year, Broga residents won
 
 <a href="" target="_blank">
 temporary reprieve
 </a>
 
 when the court granted an interim stay order on all project work pending the disposal of a main suit.


 In the main suit filed on Nov 8, 2003, residents are seeking a court declaration ordering the government to disclose full details of the 1,500-tonne capacity incinerator estimated at RM1.5 billion.


 Lee, also the most vocal member of the Semenyih/Broga No Incinerator action sub-committee, said residents were feeling harassed by the 'sneaky' moves by government agencies.


 "On one hand, they are not answering our main suit but on the other hand the land office is rushing with the land acquisition meant for the access road and to start ground work.


 "All this is happening while the Department of Environment (DOE) is still evaluating the additional environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on a new site," she said.


 
 
 Unfair situation
 
 


 <img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="146" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/9/2e20303a9088dd5c8eea707a3893be76.gif" style="WIDTH: 219px; HEIGHT: 146px" width="219"/>
 She said if the government could not answer their claims, then the case should go in their favour.


 "It has been over a year now. Why is it so difficult for the government to answer our questions?


 "It is very unfair to us that it causes the delay to our case and at the same time it doesn't follow procedures and proceeds to acquire land and start work on the ground."


 Lee also related how residents who had collected the cheques were asked to advise their neighbours to promptly do the same or risk problems collecting the money later.


 "They are telling people that if they don't collect their cheque now, the money may be sent somewhere else and it would be very difficult to collect later.


 "The government shouldn't bully the rakyat this way. It should be taking care of the people's welfare but that is not so in our case."


 Hearing of the main suit has been postponed for the third time from Jan 12 to Feb 18.


 
 
 Official ignorance?
 
 


 On Sept 9 last year, said Lee, a group of them had informed the department about the relocation of the site to an area 200 metres lower.


 "We told the official that another round of EIA study and approval must be done and therefore, land acquisition cannot take place until then."


 <img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://mk-cdn.mkini.net/oib/frontimages/incinerator%20broga.gif"/>
 "He only replied that he didn't know anything about it and told us that he had a court order clearing the land acquisition but refused to show us anything. We don't know if he really had it and now, he is simply making statements in the (newspaper) about it."


 The
 
 New Straits Times
 
 yesterday quoted department deputy director Othman Ismail as saying that they are going ahead with the land acquisition and payment of compensation after obtaining a court order.


 Othman could not be reached to confirm when the order was issued.


 He reportedly said that the high court rejected the interim stay order last October and that everything was being done above board on the advise of the state legal advisor.


 Fourteen out of the 28 landowners who were offered compensation via a letter dated Dec 28 had reportedly collected their cheques.


 Residents' lawyer T Uma Parvathy could not be reached for comment.

Broga residents feel the government is playing a cat-and-mouse game by delaying a court hearing while pushing ahead with work on the controversy-ridden incinerator project.


Incinerator: Stop postponing case, court told

~RM12

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