State denies giving approval for project

The Star 13/09/2002

IPOH: The state government has refuted claims that it had approved a mega project on the site of the 40-year-old Waller Court flats in Jalan Onn Jaafar here. 

State Infrastructure and Public Utilities Committee chairman Datuk Ong Ka Chuan said the state government had not approved any project at the spot but a conceptual plan was exhibited merely to get public feedback. 

He said the 2,000-odd tenants at the flats, which were built specially for the low-income group, would not be evicted. 

Ong, who is the state MCA chairman, said the decision was made by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali at Wednesday’s state executive council meeting when the residents’ plight was discussed. 

He was speaking to reporters after conveying the message to five members of the Waller Court Rukun Tetangga unit who met him after the meeting. 

He added that claims by a housing developer that it had been given the approval to go ahead with the mega project and to build low-cost units as alternate housing for the tenants were not true. 

The conceptual plan, dubbed the Ipoh Park Sentral, proposed a one-km-long central market, an X-Games area for children, a lake for boating and an artificial beach, service apartments, a budget hotel and a multimedia centre. 

Waller Court RT sector chief Lim Yew Yin, 58, said the residents, who were from the low-income group, do not want to leave the place as their livelihood was at stake.