GEORGE TOWN: Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth said yesterday the DAP-led state government should not flip-flop on the matter of building low- and medium-cost houses for the poor.
Its chief, Oh Tong Keong, said that if the state government was insincere about building these houses, the BN would ask the federal government to help the needy.
He claimed that the state government had misled the people on the issue of low- and medium-cost housing by stating that it had sold land because the size was too small and unsuitable for low- and medium-cost houses.
“The state government has sold other pieces of government land to the private sector for the construction of luxury homes, but had not built low- and medium-cost houses,” he told reporters here.
Oh questioned the state government’s move in selling land in Taman Manggis and denying there existed a proposal to build an additional block of low- and medium-cost houses under a second phase in the area.
He said the proposal for the Taman Manggis second phase involving the construction of a 17-storey block of 272 units on a 0.44-hectare site was approved in July 2003 by the Housing and Local Government Division of the State Secretariat.
Oh said the Taman Manggis second phase was rejected by the state government on the grounds that the area was too small, but pointed out that the construction of luxury condominiums were carried out on land smaller than 0.4 hectares.
Luxury condominiums have been implemented on land less than 0.4 hectares in size in Jalan Cantonment, Pulau Tikus and Jalan Macalister.
Oh said the Penang BN Youth strongly condemned the state government which often stated that its administration practised transparency when it was just an eyewash and facts were concealed from the people. — Bernama