BANTING, 27 FEB: The Federal Government allegedly agreed to approve the acquisition of the water management in Selangor but betrayed them when Pakatan Rakyat (PR) managed to form the State Government after the 12th General Elections (GE-12) in March 2008.
Subang Member of Parliament, R Sivarasa claims that the Federal Government in a meeting in February 2008 agreed to give the rights of the water management in Selangor, which is managed by the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor) to the State Government-owned subsidiary company, Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Berhad (KDEB).
“Umno and the BN Government themselves sabotaged the decision which was agreed on because it was PR who was governing, not their own people.
“They are malicious, ‘it was their decision’, but they did not want to continue with it because of political ill will,” he said at the Water Forum at the Sri Jugra Hall in Banting tonight.
He claimed, that the Federal Government’s act to purposely delay the solving of the water issue is to prevent the State Government from continuing to provide 20 cubic metres of free water to more than five million residents of Selangor.
“This is all a BN propaganda to create the issue of the water absence crisis, the issue is that the State Government wants to acquire the concessionaires to return it(water rights) to the people,” he said in front of almost 400 attendees.
In the meantime, many of the residents who attended the forum understood the State Government’s seriousness in its efforts to takeover the management of water from Syabas.
Muniandy Muthusamy, 52, is of the opinion that Selangor is not actually facing a water crisis but rather intervention from political parties that maliciously want to block the State Government’s efforts.
“From this forum, I came to understand that the BN Government is intentionally causing trouble to the State Government which has helped the people a lot,” he said when met.
Meanwhile, for Rahman Abdullah, 47, he agrees that the efforts endeavoured by the State Government to acquire the management of water from Syabas is because they want to help the people.
“The company earns millions, even its Chairman’s pay is a few hundred thousand per month, I support the efforts of the State Government,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Selangor Exco, Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi said that the State Government has proven that providing free water to the people has not made the state bankrupt, in fact the savings reserve has increased over the past five years.
“The state’s savings reserves have increased to more than RM2.5 billion because they (the State Government) has successfully managed to reduce financial leakages a result of efficient, prudent administration,” said Dr Ahmad who is also the Sijangkang Assemblyman.