Story by Chan Lilian
THE Pakatan Rakyat state administration has ensured that not a single temple is demolished during its tenure – and the records have proven so.
Recently, another historical deal was inked to further prove that the state government works hard to build affordable housing while not compromising places of worship.
Exco member for Housing and Town & Country Planning Jagdeep Singh Deo, together with Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Professor P. Ramasamy, Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik and Komtar assemblymember Teh Lai Heng, witnessed the signing ceremony of relocation of places of worship agreement at Jalan SP Chelliah on Aug 25.
“The Chelliah Park City project here at Jalan SP Chelliah was successfully tendered out to Zubicon Sdn Bhd by PDC. Some 2,093 units of affordable housing will be built,” Jagdeep said in his speech.
“What is historical is that today we are witnessing the agreement between the developer and the places of worship, namely six Hindu temples and one Chinese tokong, whereby an agreement has been reached to relocate them to alternative sites in the vicinity,” he added.
“Under PR administration, not a single place of worship has been demolished by the government. Unfortunately, a Hindu kuil situated in Federal controlled land, namely the Penang Port Sdn Bhd, was demolished. Although they have stated that they will rebuild it, until today this has not been done.”
Jagdeep also reminded the developer to not compromise on quality as the state only wants the highest quality of affordable housing to be built.
“Towards this end, I must commend the developer for committing to build a Green Building Index compliant development here in Chelliah Park City.”