Gadis OKU ditolak dari kereta

Sara (kiri) ditemani David Chua (dua, kanan) melihat keadaan Sofia (dua, kiri) yang ditinggalkan anggota keluarganya semasa ditemui di Kampung Federal, malam kelmarin.

BAGAN, 21 September 2012 - Siapa lagi yang mahu diharap oleh seorang anak istimewa yang memegang kad pengenalan diri sebagai orang kurang upaya (OKU) selain anggota keluarga sendiri.

Namun dalam satu kejadian yang berlaku di Kampung Cantik di sini, dua hari lalu, remaja malang itu, Sofia (bukan nama sebenar) dikatakan telah ditolak keluar dari kereta dipercayai dilakukan oleh anggota keluarganya sendiri.

Sofia, 29, seorang anak tunggal yang mengalami masalah lembam. 

Mujur kejadian yang menimpa gadis yang memegang kad Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM) itu dilihat oleh seorang penduduk kampung.

 Saksi kejadian, Sara Che Daud, 54, berkata, dia melihat Sofia terjatuh dipercayai selepas ditolak dari sebuah kereta di jalan masuk ke kampungnya sekitar jam 12.50 tengah hari, Ahad lalu.

 Sara ketika itu dalam perjalanan pulang dari menghadiri majlis kenduri.

Menurut Sara, dia kemudian mendekati remaja itu.

 "Saya cukup terkejut apabila mendapati wanita yang ditolak keluar dari kereta itu ialah Sofia yang mempunyai pertalian saudara dengan ahli keluarga saya.

 “Saya terus menghubungi seorang anggota keluarga untuk mengambilnya,” katanya.

 Bimbang sesuatu yang lebih buruk menimpa gadis istimewa itu, mereka kemudian menghubungi Penyelaras Barisan Nasional (BN) Parlimen Bagan, David Chua Teik Siang untuk minta bantuan.. 

Ditemui di rumah Sara selepas menziarahi Sofia, David berkata, dia telah melihat keadaan gadis itu semalam dan menghubungi JKM Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) bagi tindakan selanjutnya memandangkan Sofia pemegang kad OKU.

 Sementara itu, Pegawai Kebajikan Daerah SPU, Abdul Rahim Mohd Aliff berkata, pihaknya akan ambil Sofia untuk ditempatkan sementara di rumah kebajikan terpilih dan berusaha menjejaki ibu kandungnya bagi bantu menyelesaikan kes penjagaannya. - Sinar Harian

State govt urged to clarify ‘confusing’ reports over Mak Mandin land

THE state government should clarify whether it plans to give or sell the 0.83ha (2.06 acre) plot of land in Mak Mandin for the relocation of 70 squatter families from Rumah Hijau Mak Mandin.

Barisan Nasional’s Bagan constituency co-ordinator David Chua said several mainstream newspapers had quoted Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng on July 4 as saying that the state had identified a piece of land in Jalan Mak Mandin 5 for the construction of replacement flat units for the affected families.

He said Guan Eng also said that he hoped the Federal Government would quickly approve a grant for the construction of affordable housing units there.

“However, in the July 16-31 edition of the state government’s Buletin Mutiara, it was reported that the state was offering the piece of land for the Federal Government to buy and build 300 units of flats for the residents.

“We are a little confused by the Buletin Mutiara report,” he told reporters at the Bagan MCA division office in Jalan Kampung Benggali, Butterworth, yesterday.

Chua, who is also Bagan MCA Youth chief, said if the state government was sincere in wanting to help the Rumah Hijau residents, why did it only decide to find a piece of land for their relocation after four years of coming into power in Penang.

Seeking clarification: Chua (second left) with Bagan MCA vice-chairman Sum Yoo Keong and Bagan MCA members holding copies of Buletin Mutiara reports and other related documents during the press conference

He also urged the state government to provide the necessary contour plan for the land to the National Housing Department so that an architect could be appointed to start working on the replacement flat’s design.

On another matter, Chua called on Guan Eng to provide low-cost housing units from the state’s People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Ampang Jajar, Seberang Prai, to some 11 squatter families who face eviction in Kampung Federal, off Jalan Siram here.

Chua also criticised the state for not having any plans to build low-cost housing units within the Bagan parliamentary constituency.

State Town and Country Planning, Housing and Arts Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai said Lim, in a letter to Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung dated June 21, had said that the state agreed to allocate a piece of land for the relocation of the squatters.

“The chief minister also threw an offer to the Federal Government to consider buying up the particular piece of land.

“So, the ball is in the Federal Government’s court. The state did not impose any specific condition that the Federal Government must buy the piece of land,” he said.

State executive councillor Lim Hock Seng, who is also Bagan Jermal assemblyman, said the state had already submitted a location plan of the piece of land to the National Housing Department.

“We are willing to provide further assistance to whatever information and details that is required by the department to expedite the construction of the flats,” he said, adding that the residents there had already waited for more than 40 years for their problem to be resolved.

On the Kampung Federal issue, Hock Seng said the state could consider offering low-cost units to the 11 families in the same flat block as the one proposed for the Rumah Hijau squatters, provided they were willing to move into high-rise flats.

-The Star-

BN asks Penang govt who's paying for land?

by S. Arulldas

Location: 

BUTTERWORTH

THE state government has been asked to clarify whether the land allocated for the Rumah Hijau longhouse residents in Mak Mandin for low-cost homes is under the state's expense or if the National Housing Department (NHD) is paying for it.

Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) treasurer David Chua said that state executive councillor and Bagan Jermal assemblyman Lim Hock Seng had issued contradictory statements on the matter in the state's official monthly newsletter Bulletin Mutiara.

"First, he said the state is allocating the 0.082ha site land on Jalan Mak Mandin for free and then he said the NHD will have to pay it," Chua, who is also the Bagan MCA Youth head, told reporters.

He said the state had initially agreed to give a piece of state land for free to allow the department to build low-cost flat units to the affected residents.

Chua said it was understood that the state should provide a piece of land for the NHD to build low-cost flats for the affected 70 families.

The families will soon have to vacate their homes when a private development project starts.

Chua also wants Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who is also the MP for Bagan, to explain why he had asked the department to build 300 low-cost units there when there were only 70 families left in the area.

State Housing Committee chairman Wong Hon Wei and Hock Seng could not be reached for comments.