Monday June 11, 2012

Deputy Minister miffed over DBKL snub

KUALA Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) tidak apa attitude in dealing with a disabled man’s appeal for a low-cost flat was the cause of protest by members of the Independent Living and Training Centre, said Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk M. Saravanan.

Saravanan said the incident had given the Barisan Nasional government a bad name and it also gave the impression that BN politicians in FT were doing nothing.

“The Little Napoleons in City Hall must change their attitude and work with the community leaders. They should not just take their own sweet time to resolve the people’s problems,’’ Saravanan said.

Doing their job: Fashion shop assistants (from left) Norfifiana Robert and Jumalina Samsul Bahrin signing a petition in protest of the MRT project while Bukit Bintang BN representatives Leong Poh Seng, Sathia Sudakaran, Gan and Simon Sim look on.

He added that it took a public protest to get City Hall’s attention and finally DBKL offered a unit to Karuppanan Veeramalai.

“This only shows that they had a unit available but simply refuse to give it.

“The fact that my letter of endorsement showed that it was a genuine poverty case and yet DBKL chose to ignore the pleas of the poor man. This shows DBKL’s arrogance in the matter,’’ he said.

Saravanan said he was fed up as there were many pending issues involving poor Indians in FT as well as request for numerous temple projects which were stuck in DBKL red tape.

“The Sungei Besi Sivan temple and the Kepong Vinayagar temple are in limbo. These are classic examples of government bureaucracy,’’ he added.

On Thursday, disabled members staged a protest outside DBKL in support of their fellow member whose application for a low-cost unit has been left pending, forcing him to sleep in his car for the past two-and-a-half years.

Lending an ear: Chandrakumanan listening to the plight of an elderly tenant at PPR Kampung Muhibah.

Karuppanan had approached DBKL on his own in 2010, appealing for a unit but was told to wait as there were no units available.

He then sought Saravanan’s help and was given a support letter for the application yet it was not succesful.

Two hours after staging a protest, Karuppanan was offered a unit.