AMPANG – The Housing and Local Government Ministry has approved an immediate allocation of RM1 million to the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council for clean-up work following a landslide at Taman Bukit Permai yesterday evening
Speaking to reporters here, its minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said the cleaning work will be executed once the safety and risk analysis of the area is completed.
“This amount of money will be channelled to MPAJ after the rescue operations and slope analysis of the whole area are completed by the relevant departments.”
The Kepala Batas MP urged the Institute Geology of Malaysia to expedite the process of obtaining findings of the analysis, saying “it should not be limited to only one spot of the area”.
“It must include the whole area, from one end to the other, so local residents can be given a proper explanation through the analysis.”
Reezal said he will leave it to the state government and MPAJ to provide the explanation to the people.
He was responding to questions as to why residents of 48 houses located near the landslide site were the only ones ordered to evacuate for safety reasons and not the rest.
Also present was Selangor National Security Council chairman Tan Sri Noh Omar, who said it is high time the Selangor government as well as the federal administration conduct studies on the position of hills and highlands in Ampang.
“This is because landslides have happened too many times in Selangor.
“We don’t want another Highland Towers incident, which happened in Ampang as well, to occur,” said the entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister.
The landslide, which occurred after torrential rains yesterday evening, claimed four lives, while another victim escaped with light injuries in an incident that also affected 15 homes and 10 vehicles.
The search-and-rescue (SAR) operation for the five victims began as soon as nine firemen from the Pandan Fire and Rescue station arrived at the scene after receiving a distress call at 5.54pm yesterday.
The first victim, an 84-year-old man, was pulled out at 6.54pm. He escaped with minor injuries.
His wife, however, was found dead at 7.53pm before her body was recovered at 9.15pm.
About an hour and a half after that, at 10.58pm, the body of the third victim, a male resident, was extricated from the debris.
The SAR operation ended at 2am this morning after Ampang Jaya district police chief Mohamad Farouk Eshak confirmed that rescuers had found the bodies of the last two victims, both males, one of whom was a contractor of Air Selangor.
Their bodies were found at 12.46am and 1.59am respectively. – The Vibes, March 11, 2022
