Ponds a dumping ground

Lim Lip Eng (right) pointed at broken underground water pipes undetected by the authorities due to lack of technology for that. (Photo by Lim)

Stomach-churning sight: The water from Sungai Keroh flowing into the polluted pond. (Photo by PRIYA MENON)

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (Story by PRIYA MENON, 12/3/2010)

RESIDENTS near the Segambut Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) station have been illegally dumping their domestic waste into three ponds in the area for 10 years now. The ponds were never discovered until recently after a link road between Jalan Kepong and Jalan Segambut was opened.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng held a press conference at the venue recently to highlight the state of the ponds. “The residents nearby have been conveniently dumping their waste into the ponds because these ponds were hidden in the past. However, with the new road it has become an eyesore,” he said. Lim industrial waste, domestic waste and animal carcasses were among the things that had been dumped into the ponds.

Sungai Keroh is the source of the ponds’ water.

“The has become a breeding ground for aedes mosquitoes due to the presence of empty bottles and cans which are the ideal places for the larvae to breed,” said Lim. According to Lim, the monsoon drain on the other side has dried up as a result of an unfinished work. “The outlet from the river to the monsoon drain has not been completed, forcing the water to flow into the pond,” he said. Lim urged the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to look at ways to clean up the ponds in light of the Kuala Lumpur Cleanliness Day 2010 launched recently. He added the DBKL’s new Cleanliness Squad should catch the culprits littering the ponds. “These ponds could become a recreational park for residents in the area. I believe many would prefer that to the stinking ponds,” Lim said.

While visiting the site, Lim also pointed out broken water pipes causing water wastage in front of a surau. “There are many places in KL with this problem and we cannot detect burst pipes because we do not have the technology for that,” he said. Lim said he would send pictures of the ponds to the DBKL for them to take remedial action. “The country is facing water shortage due to the heat wave and instead of rationing water the broken pipes whould be repaired instead,”

MP says laws need to be amended

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (12/3/2010)

THE fiasco surrounding the gated and guarded neighbourhood issue will not be resolved even if the Housing and Local Governmnet Ministry were to release its own set of guidelines.

In fact, any guidelines being drawn up by both the Federal and Selangor governments will be ultra vires, said planning lawyer Derek Fernandez. Fernandez said two acts of Parliament — the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974 (Act 133) and the Road Transport Act 1987 — directly prohibit any restriction of access to any public road by a private individual or residents association.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, who is also a lawyer, agreed that the situation was getting out of hand and said that the laws would have to be amended before any guidelines could be enforced. Lim said that as an MP, he would push for the amendments at the next sitting of Parliament.

“Currently, every guarded scheme in the city is illegal and the only way to legalise it is to amend both the Acts; otherwise all the barricades, boom gates and steel drums obstructing public roads are an offence and can be challenged by anyone,” Fernandez said. “People should not lull themselves into a false sense of security by thinking that the guidelines will protect them from legal action against the person who is determined to remove the barricades or who uses reasonable force in exercising his right to use the road,” he added. The only solution Fernandez said is to amend Section 46 of the 1974 Act and Section 80 of the Road Transport Act by adding the words — “unless approved by the local authority” to the required sections. He said this would legalise the guidelines and make them effective.

Concern over cross junction with no traffic lights

Busy: The cross junction near Taman Sri Segambut in Kuala Lumpur.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (By JAYAGANDI JAYARAJ, 4/3/2010)

A CROSS junction located opposite the Al-Qurtubi mosque near Taman Sri Segambut, Kuala Lumpur, is a cause for concern among people in the area, especially those from the nearby SRJK (T) Segambut. The junction, which has no traffic lights, is a busy place during peak hours in the mornings and evenings with criss-crossing traffic. Many accidents have taken place in the area. The junction connects motorists from Segambut to various areas such as Kepong, Sg. Buloh and housing areas in Segambut. K. Muniandy, 64, a member of the SRJK (T) Segambut’s board of trustees, said traffic was at its worst in the early morning when the streetlights were switched off at 6.30am. “The area is still dark and at the same time, motorists are criss-crossing to get to their various destinations.

“Our concern is the safety of schoolchildren who use this road to go to their school on Jalan Sri Segambut. We hope the authorities will install traffic lights here. Prevention is better than cure because we feel this junction is deadly” he said during a press conference organised by Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng yesterday. Lim said the main road at the junction also had no name, adding that he had asked the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to give the road a name and eventually install traffic lights to ease and control traffic in the area.

KL playgrounds and parks in a bad state

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (By BAVANI M, 4/3/2010)

KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has come under fire for neglecting parks and playgrounds in the city. Several Kuala Lumpur MPs have been receiving complaints from residents living in their constituencies that the parks and playgrounds in their neighbourhoods have not been maintained for months.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said he had been inundated by e-mail with complaints from residents living in Segambut Garden, Taman Bamboo, Taman Bukit Sri Bintang, Taman Cuepacs and Sri Hartamas. According to him, most of the e-mails said the parks were in a deplorable state.

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok also said she had received e-mail from residents in Salak South Garden, Taman Desa and Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park in Jalan Kelang Lama complaining that the grass has not been cut for months.

A resident of Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) who wished to remain anonymous said the grass in the park at Jalan Athinahapan 6 had not been cut for a long time. “For as long as I can remember, City Hall has been doing a relatively good job in maintaining the public facilities here in TTDI. “However, no one has been coming to the playground to cut the grass for some months and it is almost knee-high now. “The children’s playground is busy every afternoon and there are concerns on what could be lying in the thick undergrowth. Previously, the contractors could be seen twice a month but now it’s been more than two months since the last visit,” he said. According to him, repeated calls to the DBKL Segambut office in TTDI and two separate calls to DBKL’s new hot-line had not yielded any response. A playground in Sri Hartamas was reported to be in the same state as well and a reader had written to say that the grass had not been cut for the last few months and it was now long and unsightly. “A neighbour had complained to the DBKL on numerous occasions but I have not seen any action being taken,” the reader wrote. “Previously this field was very well maintained but I guess the DBKL has some budget constraints,” the reader who wanted to be known as Low said. A visit to the park in TTDI on Tuesday showed that it was in a deplorable state. The rubbish bins were filled to the brim and garbage could be seen strewn about the ground while the badminton and basketball courts were buried by dry leaves. In Happy Garden in Seputeh, the playground at Jalan Nyaman 10 has become a meeting point for those carrying out unhealthy activities. Someone had left behind empty beer bottles and cigarettes packs on the children’s play apparatus. A similar situation was discovered in the Sri Hartamas park with rubbish scattered all over the place. The deplorable state of the parks has led to speculation on the reasons why City Hall had failed to maintain the public amenities. “I heard that they have not paid their contractors for months and, now, the contractors have refused to maintain the parks,” Teresa said.

Lim, however, alleged that due to budget constraints, the DBKL had decided to maintain the parks on its own and it could not cope with the task. Lim added that the unkempt playgrounds and parks had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. “Sri Hartamas has been declared a dengue hotspot and I do not want Desa Hartamas to have the same label later on,” he said.

Meanwhile, a City Hall source denied both the MPs allegations and said that the contracts for park maintenance had expired and the authority was in the process of renewing it. “We are not out of money and we are certainly not doing it (cutting the grass) ourselves,” the source said, adding that the contracts would probably be renewed in April. DBKL’s landscaping and urban cleanliness department spends RM100mil a year to maintain its 14 public parks as well as hundreds of other parks and playgrounds in the federal capital.

MP slams welfare dept for slow action

Source: http://thestar.com.my (2/3/2010)

SEGAMBUT MP Lim Lip Eng slammed the Federal Territory Social Welfare Department (JKM) for sitting on a financial aid application for more than two years, then approved it right on the spot when he intervened. He said kidney patient Lim Ah Kau had submitted his application in December 2007, but did not receive any favourable reply despite numerous visits to the department office at Grand Seasons Avenue in Kuala Lumpur.

Lim Ah Kau said he needed the RM300 monthly aid to feed his family. “I have to undergo dialysis treatment in Kepong three days a week while my wife, who is unemployed, takes care of our three school-going children. “We rely solely on donations and help from friends and relatives and it’s not easy to put food on the table,” he said. Lim Ah Kau said he came to the department more than 10 times after filing his application, but all he got from the officers was “to wait for the reply.”

However, when Lim Lip Eng met the officer-in-charge together with Ah Kau at the department office, Ah Kau’s application was approved immediately. “The officer said it will normally take three months to process the application, but Ah Kau’s application was filed through Women, Family and Community Development Ministry’s Project Cari, which was only forwarded to JKM in December last year. “But Ah Kau said he didn’t go through the channel. He has been visiting this JKM office personally to apply and follow up,” Lip Eng said.

Lip Eng said his requests to meet the department’s director Noormah Abdul Rauf were denied but Noormah, upon catching wind of the press conference in the waiting area, came to talk to him. She insisted that Lip Eng could not hold a press conference there without permission from JKM headquarters. “I enquired about the delay in Ah Kau’s application but was not given an explanation. “I also asked why I was no longer allowed to collect and submit application forms on behalf of the applicants. When I came here before Chinese New Year, I was told that the applicants have to come here personally but what about those bedridden ones?

“Noormah’s reply was that ‘it could be arranged’,” Lip Eng said.

He also brought along Yap Kiew, 81, and Choong Heng, 73, to apply for welfare aid. Both of them are single and live by themselves. “I will follow up with Noormah on their applications,” Lip Eng said.