SHAH ALAM, 4 Dec: Dr Xavier Jayakumar denied allegations by the Cemetery Management and Indian Community Welfare Association Malaysia (Mayanam) that the Hindu cemetery in the Api-Api sub-district, Kuala Selangor was converted into a Muslim cemetery.
Instead, he said the 4.98-acre area in Lot 13 was gazetted as a Hindu cemetery and it is a new area.
Dr. Xavier, who is also the Health, Plantation Workers, Poverty and Caring Government Exco, explained that the District and Land Office of Kuala Selangor said the area in question is in lieu of the area in Lot 14 which was reserved for the Muslim cemetery.
According to him, the statement made by Mayanam is not true and there was no misappropriation of it.
“This Api-Api Lot 13 is proposed to replace the Hindu burial site at Lot 14 because it’s wider and suitable and able to meet current needs. Lot 13 is also a quarry reserve land by grant number 707/1909 which was gazetted as a new Hindu cemetery.
“There is already a cemetery, so what is said by the association was not true. The Land Office and Kuala Selangor district had been gazetted an area of 4.98 acres for the Indians,” he said to TV Selangor here, today.
Sinaran Harian reported today that Mayanam requested the State Government to provide a new area to replace the Indian cemetery reserve which is now gazetted as the Teluk Piai Muslim Cemetery.
Mayanam president M Raman, 43, said, through the 2010 Selangor Cemetery Inventory Report, the Selangor State Assembly had agreed in July 2011 that the Teluk Piai Cemetery is a Hindu cemetery reserve.
Dr Xavier said that some of the gazetted cemeteries were originally palm oil plantations.
“We find that there are several pieces of land gazetted as cemeteries for the needs of the Indians, Chinese and so on. When it is gazetted, the committee is tasked to make guidelines for the land grants to the associations, “he said.