I REFER to the media reports that have attracted nationwide attention about the horticultural nursery businesses in Persiaran Tropicana, Petaling Jaya that have been issued a 30-day deadline notice by the Selangor Forestry Department to vacate their sites by the end of December.
According to the reports the occupants are illegally occupying forest reserve land and therefore need to be ejected.
I reject this viewpoint. The land on which the nurseries are situated is a TNB transmission reserve that came into existence in the 1980/1990s. Once the land has been cleared for any purpose or project the land ceases to be a forest reserve.
This is the same with Kota Damansara, which was once a large forest reserve stretching from Subang to Sungai Buloh. This large area has been developed and has been transformed into a bustling township.
Can the Forestry Department claim the area as still being a forest reserve in the issuance of land titles? Even the Selangor Greenlane nurseries, opposite Kota Damansara, are sited on ex-forest reserve land.
From the reports about the Tropicana nurseries many had stated that payments and fees for permits, with some amounting to RM5,000, had been paid to the Forestry Department and receipts issued, but the Forestry Department cannot proceed to process the matter as it is the District and Land Office that can process the application.
Just because the land in question was a forest reserve decades ago does not mean that the Forestry Department still has the right and control of the land or to issue permits for money.
This is the crux of the matter concerning the dispute between the Tropicana nurseries, the Forestry Department and the Land Office.
The Selangor government and the federal government (it could be the same ambiguity in other states) and the relevant authorities need to clarify this matter once and for all as it has serious ramifications.
This ambiguity and uncertainty about this important issue cannot be allowed to drag on to affect the livelihood of the business operators who have invested millions of ringgit to build up their enterprise only to be given a short notice to vacate the business site within 30 days despite having large stocks for sale during the forthcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.
Rules and laws in Malaysia are made for the benefit of the rakyat, and not to penalise them unfairly.
I would like to ask the Selangor Forestry Department, which has resorted to the 1984 Forestry Act to evict the nursery owners, as to which section of the Act states that the Forestry Department retains control over the site which has been used as a TNB power line reserve for decades and therefore has the authority to evict the affected nursery owners?
The law has to be properly interpreted and not according to the whims and fancies of the department. It is time the Forestry Department stops intimidating people with its eviction notices and causing them unnecessary anguish and worry.
The TNB reserves in the urban areas of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are much coveted by many entrepreneurs who would like to start small agriculture-related enterprises that could help bring down prices of vegetables and fruits.
However, due to the prevailing uncertainty and ambiguity many deserving entrepreneurs cannot apply for temporary occupancy licence (TOL) for the land, and the delay by the land office makes it worse.
There are thousands of acres of TNB reserves in the Klang Valley that can be put to good agricultural use. Instead much of this land is used for rubbish dumping or becomes a wasteland benefitting none.
In Selangor most of the TNB transmission reserves were once forest reserves or government or private lands. TNB was then an entity of the government and a lot of land was acquired from the 1970s onwards from private owners, who were mostly paid a pittance.
Compensation was based on the number of rubber, oil palm or fruit trees which did not amount to much. Some large plantations lost hundreds of acres due to the transmission reserve.
Today these lands are worth millions if not hundreds of millions of ringgit depending on their locality. Even though the land becomes part of the transmission reserve, the land titles still vest with the private original owners.
TNB only has “transmission rights”. As such when the land owner wants to convert the land say from agriculture to residential or industrial status the premium for the entire area has to be paid notwithstanding that part of the land has been used as a transmission reserve.
Many landowners had reluctantly surrendered their land rights due to the fact that the land was needed for national economic progress. Many land owners still grumble as they have lost much of the value for their property.
Nowadays, the privatised TNB is facing stiff opposition as land owners are demanding market price rates for land to be used for the transmission reserve. – Dec 27, 2024
V. Thomas is a Focus Malaysia viewer.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Petaling Jaya Hub
