Residents turn up outside MB’s office to hand over memorandum

What say you on the issue below?

TWO HUNDRED disgruntled residents from 14 residents’ associations in the Taman Cheras Hartamas and Taman Bukit Segar Jaya area protested outside the gates of the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah building in Shah Alam yesterday.

This was after they failed to hand a memorandum to Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim when their buses were barred from entering the premises.

Datuk Dr Eadon Ching, a spokesman for the group, said the memorandum was to express their unhappiness over a utility company’s plan to construct a 275 kilovolt (kV) high- tension wire pylon around Cheras Hartamas and Taman Bukit Segar Jaya.

The same group also later protested at the Jalan Pantai Baru entrance of the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) headquarters in Bangsar when their efforts to hand the same memorandum were blocked at the company’s gates.

Unhappy people: The group from Cheras Hartamas and Taman Bukit Segar Jaya in a one-minute lie-down outside TNB’s headquarters in Bangsar.

However, in both instances, a representative from each organisation came to collect the group’s memorandums later.

Dr Ching said they wanted to hand over the memorandum to the Mentri Besar because the residents felt he was not fully aware of their problems.

The group wanted the Mentri Besar and TNB to send representatives to a meeting with the local residents on Dec 26 to discuss the problem.

“Basically, today is about us residents of Cheras Hartamas and Taman Bukit Segar Jaya taking the initiative. We have 13,000 residents from 14 housing areas here. We want the representatives to attend the 10am meeting on Dec 26 at Cemara Flats, to listen to our concerns,” said Dr Ching.

“I attended a Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) meeting on Dec 9, and someone claimed that only a few people made noise about the planned pylon, which was not true. We have collected a lot of signatures of those who oppose the proposal and sent them through Teratai assemblyman Jenice Lee,” Dr Ching said, adding no action was taken.

Another concerned resident Alex Teng said the protest was led by the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) Zon 24 TNB High Tension Cable Action Committee.

“Prior to this, we had a protem committee handling the pylon issue, but as they failed to convince the Mentri Besar, the action committee decided to take over,” said Teng.

Teng and Dr Ching said that part of the planned route by TNB involved building on the hillslopes around Taman Bukit Segar Jaya, which raised the possibility of landslides.

Similarly, the presence of the pylons in a residential area not only exposed the residents to the 275kV power lines but also to radiation from the high electromagnetic field of the lines.

“If a flood or landslide were to happen, not only will we be affected by these alone but we also run the risk of being electrocuted by the live power lines should the pylon collapse,” said Dr Ching.

“We have proposed alternate routes, four in all, but none was considered by TNB, even at the MTES meeting.

“They can lay the power lines underground and this might incur higher cost. But they have chosen not to do so,” said Teng.

Dr Ching added that they expected 500 to 1,000 residents from all over MPAJ Zon 24 to attend the meeting.