By ROSHIDI ABU SAMAH
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THE residents of Kampung Meru Tin in Jelapang have the right to stage a march over a land dispute but Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir has questioned if this was the answer to their problem.
The residents, embroiled in a land dispute concerning a redevelopment project in their village, were told it was up to them to proceed with their planned march to the state secretary’s building in Ipoh if they felt it could solve their problem.
The Perak Mentri Besar said: “If the villagers want to march, that is their right. If they believe such approach can help solve their problem, then they need to find their own solution to it.
“Do they feel that by staging the march, they can force all their demands to be met?” he asked at a press conference on Tuesday night.
The villagers had recently threatened to proceed with the march if they did not receive a positive response for the Mentri Besar to intervene in their land dispute.
The residents’ action group secretary M. Nadaraja reportedly said they were unhappy with state executive councillor Datuk Hamidah Osman’s handling of the issue.
He claimed that the residents had complied with the condition imposed by the state government and Land Office but a disagreement between the state government and developers was holding the matter up.
Dr Zambry said the state government constantly sought the best approach in resolving any problems faced by the people, adding that it tried to resolve problems encountered by the people from all parts of the state and not just in Kampung Meru Tin.
“The problem is, when the state government wants to solve problems faced by the rakyat, there will be some parties who try to become heroes by providing a range of views. Eventually, the problems of the people cannot be resolved,” he said.
Contractor for the redevelopment project in Kampung Meru Tin, Saka Bumi Sdn Bhd had recently pulled out from the project due to various problems it had to endure to implement the project.
MetroPerak recently quoted Saka Bumi managing director Marsidi Ahmad Samri as saying that the company was no longer interested in developing the project after it encountered problems and did not get co-operation from the villagers.
The company had signed an agreement with the state government two years ago to redevelop the area and had spent more than RM300,000 for the preliminary works last year. However, the company had to cease work three months later because the villagers had refused to move out of the site to make way for the project, said Marsidi.
He had said the company had to make a separate agreement with villagers to implement the project.
It was also reported that all 183 villagers of Kampung Meru Tin needed to fork out an additional RM4,000 each if they wanted to proceed with the project due to the rising cost of construction materials, which had risen about 30% over the past 18 months.
Hamidah had said the villagers had failed to fulfil their promise to move out of the site by March 15 last year to make way for the redevelopment project, causing it to be delayed.
