By Persatuan Petaling Jaya Lestari
Good morning to all residents, business owners, stakeholders of Petaling Jaya.
We organised this gathering here this morning (27 October) with the idea of sharing with all of you the decision of the High Court on the judicial review application filed by four residents from Petaling Jaya, Damansara and Puchong.
This event was supposed to be a “Walk to The Hub SS2” from here, and the press conference was to be held there but due to the safety concerns of the police, we were advised not to have a walk but just a press conference here.
The decision on the judicial review was to be delivered by the High Court on 21 October, but the decision date was postponed by the judge to a possible date in January 2025.
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The judicial review application was actually filed to get the relevant documents on the PJDL highway project. If we are given the right to obtain these documents from the government, then we can proceed to take further action in the event the highway is approved.
The most important document that is needed by the residents, business owners and stakeholders will be the social impact assessment and the traffic impact assessment to finally enable us to know the actual alignment of the highway as everyone is kept in the dark about this despite the focus group discussions being held over the period from January to about May 2023 in certain parts of Petaling Jaya.
Apart from this we also need to see the impact on traffic by the highway and last but not least the environmental impact the highway is going to have on its surroundings.
Despite questions being raised at the various focus group discussions, the developer has not committed in their answer as to which is the actual alignment of the project.
Even the government, both state and federal, has given differing statements from July last year starting from the statement made by the Selangor menteri besar in the run up to the state elections, which were held in August 2023. Back then, he stated the project would be cancelled but on the very next day he released another statement which said that the project could still go on
On the federal government’s side, the Ministry of Works was expected to give an official statement after Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on 1 April 2024 that the cabinet had decided not to continue discussions with the PJD Link developer after they failed to fulfil the conditions precedent contained in the concession agreement.
Despite the statement by the communications minister, there has been no official announcement from the Works Department even though six months have passed since his statement.
The residents, business owners and stakeholders have been waiting for this official announcement for half a year but to no avail.
We hope there are some concrete steps taken by the federal government to ensure this highway does not proceed for approval. The people have clearly spoken during the focus group discussion forums that they do not want the highway for various reasons.
As such, it is our humble request to the federal government to ease everyone’s anxiety and put this issue to bed so that the residents, business owners and stakeholders do not continue to be at unease from the time of the originally mooted highway known as Kidex to the current version known as “Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link”.
The people of Petaling Jaya also hope that there will be no other attempts to build a similar highway in the future since the PJDL highway project has failed to fulfil the conditions precedent contained in the concession agreement.
The people of Petaling Jaya also hope that in the future the concession agreement is declassified from being an official secret. The people would want to know the full details of the agreement entered into between the developer and the government to know the extent to which the terms of the agreement actually benefit the people and the infrastructure surrounding the highway. – Sustainable PJ
Wong Mei Ching is secretary of Persatuan Petaling Jaya Lestari (Sustainable PJ).
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
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- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
