KUALA LUMPUR: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has refuted fresh allegations made against him last night, insisting that the plot of land in Taman Manggis was not gazetted for any development.
At a press conference in the Parliament lobby today, the Bagan Member of Parliament said the land was "empty", denying that it was supposed to be for the development of a housing project for the Hardcore Poor (PPRT).
"The over 1-acre land on Taman Manggis is empty, and labelled as "future development" in this plan from the National Housing Department.
"The state government felt that the land was too small to build houses for the people, so we decided to build the low-cost housing project on a bigger plot of land at Jalan S.P. Chelliah, which is in the city centre," he said.
The 11-acre land on Jalan S.P. Chelliah, Lim added, would be able to place 770 units of low-medium cost housing, and 1,320 PPRT homes.
He also denied allegations that the land on Taman Manggis was sold to a third party.
Lim said the land was still under Kuala Lumpur International Dental Centre Sdn Bhd (KLIDC), as stated in the land title.
"This company has never made an application to the state government to sell this plot of land to a third party.
"If they wanted to sell it, they needed the approval from the state government. Without it, transfer of ownership cannot happen."
Last night, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said he had received documents showing that KLIDC had bought a plot of land meant for affordable housing, which was later converted into a hospital and hotel project.
Rahman, who was wrapping up his ministry's reply in the Dewan Rakyat said he would submit the documents to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to facilitate their investigations into Lim's Penang bungalow issue.
Lim said he "did not want to know" where Rahman obtained the alleged documents and said the minister could submit any document to the MACC.
"We aren't afraid because we are telling the truth. The title clearly shows that the land still belongs to KLIDC," he said.