PETALING JAYA, April 18 — Pioneer Bukit Beruntung housebuyer Augustine Maria Dasan, 67, is one 75,000 residents whose township has been scarred by the ugly sight of thousands of abandoned buildings, scarce infrastructure, poor maintenance of public facilities and a severe lack of basic amenities.
Augustine, who lives in a bungalow he bought 18 years ago, continues to speak up for the community as president of the Residents’ Welfare Committee of Bukit Beruntung. Things have hardly changed but the heavy vehicles sales and marketing consultant is not giving up hope.
Whether he lives to see it happen, Augustine is determined to bring pride back to the township. He vents his frustrations to Malay Mail.
“Where do I begin?
Besides parts of the area looking like a war zone, much of Bukit Beruntung is in darkness as there are no streetlights because many main roads have not been handed over to the Public Works Department. The only decent places are Melor 1, 2 and 3 which are regarded as the ‘Beverley Hills’ of Bukit Beruntung.
There was a rush to buy property here about 20 years ago when it was supposed to be developed into the ‘second’ Petaling Jaya.
Everyone wanted to own a property here as there was talk that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport was to be built in Hulu Selangor district, the horse race course in Bukit Taga and the national zoo moved to Ulu Yam.
Our dreams have been shattered and today we live in a ghost town. Countless efforts to rectify the worsening situation have been in vain.
I even handed a memorandum to the prime minister when he visited the area under the Mesra Raykat programme five years ago while MP P. Kamalanathan has not been of much help.
Our problem starts with the Hulu Selangor District Council based in Kuala Kubu Baru. The council was to have been upgraded to town council and moved to Bukit Beruntung but it never happened.
The problems include irregular collection of refuse; illegal dumping of waste; non-functional oxidation pond; abandoned homes in Bukit Sentosa and Prima Beruntung that have become hideouts for drug addicts and breeding grounds for mosquitoes; lorries parked haphazardly in residential areas; pothole-lined roads; caved-in monsoon drains and several roads without streetlights.
There are more issues. There’s no proper market, but there is one so-called market run by undesirable elements.
Emergency services are lacking as there’s no hospital and a clinic was only set up recently. The nearest fire and rescue station is in Rawang.
Public transport is a sore point as the bus service is irregular while there is no taxi terminal.
Adding to our woes is the absence of burial grounds for Hindus, Chinese or Christians — and there are many more problems.
Many of the owners have left their homes abandoned because it is too lonely to live here and dangerous.
Many did not service their housing loans and houses valued at RM60,000 have been auctioned at RM6,000. These houses are still unoccupied and left to rot. There have been many cases of outsiders who moved into empty houses illegally.
Plans to convert the many lakes here into theme parks did not materialise because of the poor state of the surrounding areas.
We have one bank and a post office for a population of about 75,000. If fully developed, the forecast population was about one million.
At one time, Bukit Beruntung was listed by the authorities as a notorious zone, but with some clean-up not too long ago, it is better now.
Sadly, a place with so much potential has been neglected. But, we will continue our efforts to see Bukit Beruntung realise its true potential.”
