Deputy FT Minister asks residents to be reasonable - The Star

April 25, 2008

AFTER years of protest with regards to flash floods, the Federal Territories Ministry has finally decided to relocate SRK (T) Ladang Bukit Jalil in Kampung Muhibah, Kuala Lumpur.

However, the decision was not well received by some residents who have been living around the school since the 50s. They had refused to move out from the area. One of the residents, S.Thiakarajan, 54, said that the flash floods were caused by a nearby construction with bad drainage system.

“During downpour, there was no proper flow of water. But now the pipes are being fixed and I am sure we can resolve the flash floods issue,” said Thiakarajan.

Deputy FT Minister Datuk M.Saravanan, who visited the site of the 60-year-old school recently, said the residents should be reasonable.

He said that there were no other Tamil schools in the FT area that had been given such a conducive location with so many facilities surrounding it. Currently the school had six classrooms with 102 students and the new school is expected to be bigger and better.

The school had been hit by flash foods more than 10 times since October and the Education Ministry had also pledged RM650,000 for building of the new school.

“We cannot allow our personal interest to destroy the future of Tamil schools in this country. The present area is just not suitable and more than half of the residents in the area had already moved out to the public housing units nearby. But the remaining ones still insist on their houses being built here,” said Saravanan.

The schools parents’ teachers’ association (PTA) president S. Balakrishnan said a meeting would be held with the parents on April 27 to notify them about the move.

“We don’t know if they would agree to the move. Lets see what happens,” said Balakrish-nan.

Earlier, Saravanan spent almost two hours visiting Hindu temples in Brickfields together with DBKL deputy director of services Datuk Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz.

They identified six Hindu temples along Jalan Ang Seng that sat on illegal land.

”We are looking at an alternative site for these temples, somewhere more centralised,” he said. Saravanan said the temples currently sit on a police reserve land and once the temples are relocated, a logistic department would be built there.