Penang needs the cooperation of the Urban Well Being, Housing and Local Government Ministry on housing matters in view of the growing need for affordable housing in the state.
State Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said he had written twice to Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan over the locations for the proposed PR1MA affordable housing schemes as well as the 1Malaysia Housing Maintenance Programme (TP1M).
“Until now, there was no firm response from him personally,’’ he told a recent press conference.
He added that there was also no communication with the state-based Federal Department in the state, which oversee federal-funded projects in Penang.
“We need the federal side to liaise with us because we also have our own initiatives for building maintenance and affordable housing,” he said.
“The state can’t afford to overlap its boundaries on such matters with the federal authorities,” he added.
Under the TP1M, Jagdeep Singh said low-cost housing applicants were entitled to 90% allocation while low-medium housing applications got 70%.
He said: “The state is willing to top up the remainder sum for each successful applicant under the TP1M but the federal side has remained silent.”
He said there were 130 TP1M applicants but only one successfully obtained a project on the island and two on the mainland in the past several months.
As for PR1MA, he said that under the proposed 2014 Budget, the ministry was supposed to build 80,000 affordable units in five states including Penang.
Both Abdul Rahman as well as Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman, who is the state-based Federal Department director could not be reached for comments. - By The Star
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