KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor put to rest rumours that he was avoiding meeting Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) residents after spending some three hours listening to their grouses at the TTDI Community Centre, here, last night.
Speaking at the first Bicara Rakyat program, he said he choose TTDI as his first stop to brush off rumours that he had been avoiding the residents there over several matters including the proposed development of the Taman Rimba Kiara green lung.
"This is clearly not true. I'm an open person and am willing to discuss and listen to people's grouses. That is why, I decided to start this Bicara Rakyat with residents here," he said.
The programme Question & Answer session was moderated by Datuk Ali Mubarak and was organised by MyPPP with the cooperation of the Federal Territories Ministry.
The programme is also expected to take place at other locations such as Bangsar, Damansara and other residential areas in the federal capital.
Tengku Adnan said the program is meant to allow the public to convey their concern and grouses to the government for improvement.
It was rumoured of differences between TTDI residents and Tengku Adnan over the approval of a 54 storey luxury condo development project at the Taman Rimba Kiara green lung site.
Close to 500 residents, including Friends of Bukit Kiara and Residents Association attended the session.
"Taman Rimba Kiara issue is not a problem to me. I have promised not touch the green lung. However, it's the opposition who are trying to manipulate it for their benefit.
"Anytime I'm ready to talk about it. Im sure we can find a feasible solution on how to go about it. Come see me at my office and we shall discuss," Tengku Adnan said.
He said this in reply to questions regarding the fate of the threatened green lung located at TTDI.
"By right the MP of this place is supposed to bring the people's concern to the parliament but sadly some of this issue had never been mentioned in the parliament. This shows how their elected representatives from the opposition actually care for their constituents," he said believe to be hinting at Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, who represents the TTDI residents.
Tengku Adnan also received criticism from participants over poor services/response from Kuala Lumpur City Hall to residents in TTDI.
“Our letters or complaints are most often not answered. We had written to City Hall many times on several issues but they never seemed to reply. We too have met the officers for discussion, especially on the Taman Rimba Kiara issues but they still failed to provide us with the requested documents to substantiate their reasons for anything," TTDI Residents Association chairman Abdul Hafiz Abu Bakar told the minister.
He had also prepared a memorandum requesting for all City Hall complaints to be replied within a months and made request for a copy of all minutes from all Resident Association meetings with City Hall.
A few other suggestions on how authorities could possibly overcome the problems in TTDI were also highlighted during the session.
Among them were to build multi storey parking lots in place of the current grounded ones, to do away with the designated/ restricted parking lots for shops and business operators in the vicinity, except for clinic and medical services outlets.
Also present at the session was his Deputy Datuk Dr Loga Bala Mohan.