Stop-work order issued against demolition by MPS

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NEARLY 80% of a community hall in Kampung Rajah, Rawang, had been demolished by the time a stop-work order was issued.

Strangely enough the demolition was ordered by MPS president Datuk Zainal Abidin Azim on Thursday.

Laid bare: The roof of the hall had been brought down on July 30. At that time 40% of the hall at Kg Rajah, Rawang, was demolished.

According to MPS councillor Gunarajah R. George, the hall was torn down after the council was said to have received a letter from an unknown source stating that approval for the demolition had been given by the MIC and Indian community leaders in Rawang.

However, the demolition was stopped following a meeting held on Friday.

The meeting, chaired by Gunarajah, was attended by Rawang assemblyman Gan Pei Nei, councillors Tan Hui Chuan and Tengku Zulpuri Tengku Shah Raja Puji as well as representatives from both the MIC and Persatuan Shing An Rawang.

The meeting was held at the MPS building in Bandar Baru Rawang.

All parties at the meeting agreed that a stop-work order be issued to prevent further demolition of the community hall.

About 10 MPS personnel with an excavator started to demolish the building on Thursday when Gunarajah and other councillors came to the scene to stop the demolition.

The demolition came as a surprise because two weeks ago, Selangor state health, estate workers’ affairs, poverty eradication and caring government committee chairman Dr Xavier Jeyakumar visited the site and instructed the demolition of the hall to be postponed until further investigations were carried out.

On July 30, two local MIC branch chairmen had allegedly led in the breaking of the roof of the community hall, which was originally the first Tamil school in Rawang. It was built in 1927.

At that time, 40% of the community hall was torn down.

Now, almost 80% of the hall is demolished.

Two local MIC leaders claim that former Rawang assemblyman Datuk Tang See Hang was instrumental in getting the land transferred to an association, thus depriving the Indian community the use of the hall.

Gunarajah said the councillors wanted to find out why the second demolition was carried out despite the instruction by Dr Xavier.

To ensure that there were no more demolition work at the hall, MIC has placed a 40-ft steel container on Friday inside the hall to ensure that construction work could not be carried out.

“A meeting to discuss the hall dispute will take place next month after Hari Raya Puasa and until then, there should not be any work on the site,’’ he said.