STATE LAND RESERVED FOR DEVELOPMENT?
2ha of land in Pulau Tikus allegedly leased to private hospital
THE Citizens Awareness Chant Group (Chant) has raised concerns on whether another plot of state land, one of the few remaining green lungs in Pulau Tikus, will be making way for development, again.
Its adviser, Yan Lee, said sources informed him that the land, said to be more than 2ha, bordering Jalan Brown, Jalan D.S. Ramanathan and Lebuhraya Rose, might have been transferred to Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI) before being leased or sold to a private hospital for medical tourism.
Yan urged the state government, namely Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, to come clean and explain the status of the land.
According to sources, the land is worth about RM1,000 per sq ft.
“I cannot say any more as this is tightly controlled. Any further information (I spill) will get my source in trouble.
“We want the state government to confirm the matter. If it is not true, I am willing to take the heat. Do not hide the truth from us.”
He said Chant was the first to expose the Peel Avenue land deal.
He said from what he was told, the matter had been under discussion for almost a year.
“We are concerned about losing one of the few remaining green lungs in Pulau Tikus. It has been there since the time of the British. One by one, we are losing them (state land and green lungs). What will be next?
“We do not have a local plan as the authorities want flexibility in planning, but we should at least have public consultations.
“This DAP-led state government prides itself as a peoplecentric government, but its actions prove otherwise. Enough. Please stop it.”
Yan said the state government should learn from the Island Hospital episode, so the state land would not only benefit a selected few, but Penangites as a whole.
“In the Island Hospital case, the Health Ministry did not give any approval, but the Penang Island City Council gave the greenlight for the construction of three blocks of service suites and a hotel. Is that not beneficial to the hospital?
“What do the people of Penang stand to gain from all this?” he questioned, adding that most ownership of hospitals were not owned by local companies.
Yan also questioned what hap- pened to plans for a proposed underpass to connect Jalan Mount Erskine to Jalan Burma.
Checks by the New Straits Times showed that a board had been erected by the city council, informing about the underpass project.
When met at Han Chiang University College of Communication, Lim refused to comment on the matter.
“I do not have the facts, (and) so do you. So, how can such a question be asked? We do not know heads or tails of the matter. If we give the wrong answer, it will become an issue.”