A four hour journey to collect welfare cheque

B Nantha Kumar

| May 7, 2011

A disabled fruit seller says the new district office is 20 kilometres away from the old one and there is no public transport

SHAH ALAM: A disabled fruit seller has to travel for about four hours to the new Petaling district office to collect his welfare cheque.

S.Krishnan, from Shah Alam, had no problem going to the district office when it was situated near Subang Parade.

The district office moved to U5 in Mutiara Subang on April 1 because it is understood that the site of the previous building was awarded to a prominent family-run developer.

FMT learned that the developer was planning to demolish the old building to build a new motorcar showroom.

According to a source, this is the second state government-owned land to be given to the same developer.

The Selangor government awarded a contract to an unknown RM2 company linked to the developer to build nine blocks of high-rise buildings in Section 52, Petaling Jaya.

Krishnan says the new district office is 20km from Subang town and the only form of transport is the Rapid bus from Kuala Lumpur.

Krishnan spends about four hours travelling to the new office and back by bus.

“From Shah Alam, I travel to Kuala Lumpur and take another bus from there to the district office,” he said, adding that if he was to take a taxi, it would cost him RM40.

He asked why the state government, which called itself a “concerned government”, would move the office to a place which was so inconvenient, especially for the poor.

He urged the state government to provide transportation service to the office as soon as possible.