SELANGOR’S Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) today urged the state government to suspend land allotment in a Tanjung Karang village after finding irregularities in the allocation process.

Selcat chairperson Hannah Yeoh said the state government must restructure the Kampung Sungai Yu land allocation task force as the existing task force had violated the rule of allocating one plot of land per family.

The Selangor speaker said that the state government should immediately cancel allocations for families that received more than one plot of land.

Selcat has recommended five state assemblymen to sit in the new task force, previously filled with local community leaders and representatives from the Kuala Selangor Land District Office.

“Members of the task force and their family members cannot be beneficiaries (of the land allotment) as it constitutes a conflict of interest,” Yeoh said at the state assembly building in Shah Alam today.

The five state representatives Selcat recommended are Sulaiman Abd Razak (BN-Permatang), Mohd Shamsudin Lias (BN-Sungai Burong), Jakiran Jacomah (BN-Bukit Melawati), Haji Amiruddin Setro (BN-Jeram) and Dr Idris Ahmad (PKR-Ijok).

Sulaiman, who is also a member of Selcat, had urged the select committee to investigate the matter during the state assembly sitting last month.

Some 50 disgruntled villagers had marched to the Kuala Selangor land district office on November 13 to protest against alleged misappropriation in the land allocation process, such as one family receiving several plots of land, reselling of plots and applicants with fake MyKad.

Yeah said the Kuala Selangor Land District Office must ensure similar mistakes, including its failure to vet the identity card of the land applicants, do not occur in the future.

More than 300 people had applied for the 175 plots of land meant for the area’s pioneers, she said.

Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali previously said the state would act if investigations proved that ineligible persons were awarded land in Kampung Sungai Yu.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it did not detect any abuse of power in its early investigation into the matter in a letter dated November 29 to the Selangor state assembly secretary. – December 8, 2017.