6
news without borders
Perak blames
federal govt
for costly
Toyota Camry
IPOH: Senior state executive council-
lor Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham has blamed
the federal government for the high
cost of the state’s purchase of 16
units of Toyota Camry 2.4 for the
state exco members and senior of-
ficers.
He said the refusal of the federal
government to give tax exemption
resulted in the state government
having to pay RM167,000 for each
Toyota Camry compared with the
actual price of only RM97,000.
The cars will replace the Proton
Perdana V6 Executive as the official
cars for the state.
Pointing out that the allocation for
the purchase was approved by the
previous Barisan Nasional (BN) state
government, Ngeh said the decision
was to avoid wastage of public funds
in terms of the high maintenance
cost for the existing official cars.
“It is more cost-effective to
maintain Toyota Camry cars than
the present fleet of Proton Perdana
V6. We want to save more by buying
new cars as the maintenance cost
will not be that high,” he told report-
ers after the Perak DAP convention,
here yesterday.
On Friday, Perak Mentri Besar
Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar
Jamaluddin said the state would fork
out RM2.7 million to acquire the new
cars, saying it was costly to maintain
the Perdana fleet.
Pangkor assemblyman Datuk
Dr Zambry Abd Kadir described the
state government as not fulfilling its
promise to spend prudently.
Zambry, a former exco member,
said he was not denying the state
government its right to buy new
cars.
“But in the first place, they should
not have gone around telling the
rakyat that they did not want to
spend extra money to buy the cars,”
he said. - Bernama
Hillslope dig, rock blasting worry
Mar Vista folk
by Himanshu Bhatt
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: Residents of Mar Vista
apartments in Tanjung Bungah here
have been under severe stress after
an adjacent development project dug
deeply into the hill just 2m below their
land.
Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong,
who made a site visit yesterday,
expressed concern that rock blasting
and lack of proper drainage for the
Ferringhi Heights bungalow project may
endanger the lives of residents further
up the hill.
He noted the residents’ concerns
that the hole had eroded even further
since the developer, DMV Sdn Bhd,
began work.
DMV had been issued a stop-work
order by the Penang Island Municipal
Council (MPPP) last Tuesday. The com-
pany has since sought special permis-
sion to complete a retaining wall.
A DMV representative refused to
comment to the press during the site
visit, saying only that the company
would meet whatever requirement the
MPPP imposed.
Businessman Voon Choon Yu, 32,
whose apartment is beside the digging
area, questioned if it was safe to remain
in the building.
“If it is not safe, what should we
do?” he asked. “Who is going to be
responsible if something happened to
this building?”
Voon said he had lodged a police re-
port after rock blasting from the project
damaged his window last month.
Mar Vista joint management body
spokesman Fabien Octave claimed the
developer had about six months ago
destroyed drains coming from further
uphill that ended on its site.
“We have asked them to rectify the
situation. They said they were building
a retaining wall, but there had been
delays,” he said.
“According to the developer, they
have to build the wall first before they
can rebuild the drains.”
Meanwhile, residents of Chee Seng
Gardens in Tanjung Bungah have called
on the government to stop the Surin
high-rise condominium project by
Bolton Bhd on a hillslope above their
housing area.
A spokesman, George Aeria, said the
steep hill should be rehabilitated.
He said the massive cutting of slopes
for the project could endanger the lives
and properties of nearby residents.
“We do not want another tragedy
like the ones in Highland Towers or Bukit
Antarabangsa in Chee Seng Gardens,”
he said.
The project was slapped with a tem-
porary stop-work order in September
after the hill experienced heavy mud
and water flow during rains.
theSun
‘Fuel prices likely to drop further’
PENANG: The retail price of petrol
and diesel is expected to drop
further soon following the drop in
the global oil price, Domestic Trade
and Consumer Affairs Minister
Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said
yesterday.
He said the government usually
reviewed the price at the beginning
or middle of the month before mak-
ing an announcement.
However, he did not say by how
much the price would go down
and when it would be annnounced,
when launching a “price reduction”
campaign at the Sunshine Super-
market in Bayan Baru here.
On Dec 3, the RON97 petrol pump
price dropped by 10 sen from RM2
to RM1.90, and RON97 and diesel
from RM1.90 to RM1.80 a litre.
| MONDAY DECEMBER 15 2008
Voon is concerned
about the safety of
his building because
of hillslope digging for
the adjacent Ferringhi
Heights project.
At a press conference later,
Shahrir said that because of the
increasingly cheaper petrol and
diesel, the fuel subsidy could be
removed while the people should
not be expecting government sub-
sidy forever.
Asked about the request by
the Federation of Taxi and Hired
Car Associations Penang for the
government to review the petrol
subsidy of RM1.92 a litre, Shahrir
advised them not to use the fleet
card anymore.
He said the taxi drivers should
get petrol at the pump price and
the subsidy should no longer be
given. Besides, based on records,
there had been no requests from
taxis for the subsidy to be given to a
level of RM1 a litre. – Bernama