MBPJ’s many unresolved issues
Petaling Jaya is the nation’s newest city. Despite the relative calm on issues after the departure of the previous Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Ahmad Termizi Puteh, the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has plenty of problems that remain unresolved.
While mayor Mohamad Roslan Sakiman has made promises and is working towards resolving the problems he inherited, the people are still waiting for answers to several issues.
Accounts and Assessment
Sparking off the frustration of Petaling Jaya folks was the increase in assessment rates. The 10% increase for all properties excluding high-rise properties had PJ residents up in arms when the idea was first mooted in November 2005 and implemented in February this year.
Residents who managed to obtain the summarised accounts concluded that the increase was indeed unjustified, as the council had neglected to collect some RM37.2mil worth of taxes owed to it.
The revelation did not reverse the increase and Mohamad Roslan had said he would not rescind the increase because of the administration problems that it would cause the council.
Billboards and Sports Club
Uncovering the summarised accounts for the council also revealed other improprieties, namely the way billboard advertising was done and the dubious practise of donating large amounts of cash to the then MPPJ Sports Club.
Cash sales of a building plans booklet that should, by right, go to council coffers were being channelled to the MPPJ Sports Club instead.
The MPPJ Football Team was shut down to put an end to the dubious donations.
However, the council still has not answered the question of what happened to the money that was donated and channelled to the MPPJ Sports Club, which is estimated at millions based on the number of years the football team was in existence (four years) multiplied by the number of billboards (numbering 365 presently) whereby it was reported that a donation of RM10,000 to RM80,000 was required for each billboard depending on its size.
Town Planning and Traffic
New developments like the PJ8 project and the PJ Exchange project purportedly have traffic studies conducted and would have sufficient contingencies planned in their construction to ensure proper traffic dispersal.
But when residents demanded for the traffic study report in a recent PJ Local Draft Plan amendment meeting, the developers could not produce it, causing more protests and vows from residents to oppose these projects.
Potholes
Finally, there is the issue of the large number of potholes in PJ’s main roads such as Jalan Universiti, Jalan Gasing or any of the PJS roads.
The increased traffic is wearing the roads faster than the council is paving the roads and accidents involving motorcyclists are increasing because of the potholes.
“This place is famous for motorcycle rear bump accidents,” said Seapark Residents Association chairman Gan Keng, pointing to the junction of Jalan 21/1 and Jalan 21/21 that is inundated with indentations.
Source: The Star
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