KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Several Petaling Jaya residents have hauled the authorities to court for their alleged failure to disclose approval documents linked to the controversial proposed Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link (PJD Link) expressway.
The plaintiffs, namely resident T. Chakaravarthi, Kum Koo Ji, S. Saktiseelan and Loke Yin Pong, had filed the lawsuit through Messrs Lim Wei Jiet at the High Court on June 7.
They named the Director General of the Department of Town and Country Planning, the Selangor State Director of the Department of Town and Country Planning, the Selangor State Government and the Malaysian Government as respondents.
According to the residents, they are seeking a court order to compel the aforementioned authority bodies to be given copies of certain documents submitted by PJD Link (M) Sdn Bhd to the authorities to convince the latter to approve PJD Link.
A total of six documents have been requested, namely the Social Impact Assessment (SIA); Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA); Focus Group Discussion (FGD) Minutes; Detailed Design of the PJD Link Alignment and the Concession Agreement between PJD Link and the government dated April 5, 2022.
The residents said the documents sought were crucial since it would allow the public and other experts to scrutinise whether the methodology used were fair, robust & adheres to professional standards.
They said that should everything be exchanged behind closed doors without scrutiny or accountability, it left a lot of room for abuse & rubber-stamping.
Apart from an order to compel the authorities to disclose the requested documents within a week from the date of judgment, the residents is also seeking a declaration that the Concession Agreement is not an “ official secret” under the Official Secrets Act (OSA); and a declaration that parts of the OSA are unconstitutional, vague and gives unfettered discretion to authorities to classify any document as an "official secret”.
The High Court has fixed July 4 for a hearing of the residents' lawsuit.
Previously an independent survey released in May showed that 93.6 per cent of individuals residing along the proposed alignment of the PJD Link expressed their disagreement with the project.
The findings of the independently-conducted SIA showed that the majority of the respondents were of the opinion that noise and air pollution from the PJD Link highway would be intolerable and that the highway would not reduce traffic congestion as promised.
Similarly, 93.6 per cent of the respondents agreed that they and their families would be impacted by the project.
The group, Say No to PJD Link, said they needed to conduct their own assessment due to the alleged lack of transparency regarding the official SIA.
* An earlier version of this article contained an error which has since been rectified.
