Kg Tropicana
green belt not gazetted: Buffer zone for now
08/06/2005 Malay Mail By Harny Abu Khair
PETALING JAYA, SELANGOR, June 8
Although the area surrounding the four-hectare Kampung Tropicana in Subang
is designated as a green belt and is a buffer zone for the neighbouring Sungai
Buloh forest reserve, it has yet to be gazetted.
Petaling District Officer Mazalan Mohd Noor said the area has always been
designated as a green belt and the villagers are not eligible for Temporary
Occupancy Licences (TOL).
He said the Land Office received about 135 applications for TOLs but they
were rejected because the land was a green belt.
Furthermore, the area is an affluent one and is thus unsuitable for agriculture.
Mazalan said the land will remain a buffer zone for the forest reserve, until
there is an application to alienate and develop it.
“It is the State Government’s prerogative to approve any application to alienate
the land for development,” he said. He said the land was earmarked for
a buffer zone when Kampung Tropicana was still covered by forest.
The area was cleared to make way for Tenaga Nasional’s high tension wires
and pillars. Asked why the area was not gazetted, Mazalan said the process
was normally carried out by the State Government.
“The land belongs to the State and the villagers are squatting on Government
land,” he said. He said, in line with the State Government’s aspiration to
achieve Developed State status for Selangor by August, the squatters had been
included in the relocation programme and had been offered low-cost houses.
“The relocation exercise for Kampung Tropicana is similar to those of other
squatter settlements in the State,” he said.
He said the squatters were offered low-cost flats in nearby Pelangi Damansara
and Ara Damansara.
The low-cost flats in Pelangi Damansara are expected to be ready in two months.
Those in Ara Damansara are expected to be ready by the end of the year.
He said the offer took into consideration the 20 squatter families who refused
to be relocated.
It was reported earlier that the residents, who have been living in the village
for 40 years selling jasmine flowers and rearing goats and cattle, were told
to move out and make way for development.
The residents applied for TOL in May 2001.
The Land Office on May 25 informed them that the land that they had been occupying
was designated as a green belt.
Village headman G. Karinasamy claimed that two weeks ago, Subang MIC chief
N.R. Krishnan, who is a Petaling Jaya Municipal Councillor, visited them and
said that the squatters’ homes would be demolished in September for a housing
project.
The residents said that if their homes were demolished, they would have no
where else to go.
They also claimed that they could not afford to buy the low-cost houses, offered
at RM42,000 per unit.
The Malay Mail has been unable to get in touch with Krishnan. We were told
by Subang Jaya Municipal Councillor S. Ammini that he had gone to India. He
is expected to be back today. |
| |
|
