As worms crawl out over Selangor highways, state panel peers into Skip

By admin-s On Jul 11, 2014

(MMO) – A special select committee of Selangor lawmakers begins today the daunting task of poring through documents surrounding the Serdang-Kinrara-Putrajaya Expressway (Skip) to see if the controversial project had been illegally incorporated into the state’s local city plan.

This latest development follows growing concerns and documented proof that the highway was never part of key public hearings in 2012, in which all proposed amendments by the Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) were presented to residents for feedback.

Because they cut through swathes of land, highways cannot be constructed without amending the local authority’s existing plans for the areas within its jurisdiction.

The Skip highway, however, appears to have leapt into the local city plan without having to go through this crucial step.

The Malay Mail Online understands that a meeting, to be chaired by Selangor Deputy Speaker Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, will be held tomorrow to discuss the issues surrounding the Skip project.

Other representatives expected to attend this are: Khasim Abdul Aziz (Lembah Jaya), Dr Idris Ahmad (Ijok), Hasnul Baharuddin (Morib), Halimaton Saadiah Bohan (Kota Damansara), Rajiv Rishyakaran (Bukit Gasing) and Eddie Ng (Balakong).

Nik Nazmi, who is the chairman of the Selangor state special select committee on local councils, confirmed this with The Malay Mail Online when met at the Royal Selangor Club Wednesday.

“Yes, we are meeting on Friday. Obviously we will discuss other issues, not just about Skip, but yes, there will be an investigation into how the highway became part of the local plan and whether there was a public consultation process prior to this,” the Seri Setia state lawmaker said.

Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rishyakaran, who was a councillor on the Subang Jaya local authority before the 2013 general election, said the highway was not mentioned or presented to residents at public hearings in February 2012 which heard all the proposed changes to Selangor’s local city plans.

“To the best of my knowledge, it was not part of the amendments presented during the public display in 2012,” the DAP leader told The Malay Mail Online earlier this month.

Rishyakaran said he had attended public hearings on all the proposed changes at the time.

The 17.5km expressway which will join up with another controversial project, the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), has already been incorporated into Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya’s local city plan.

But publicly available details are scarce, raising questions over how the project came to be included.