Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The re-building of the Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu temple

The Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu temple in Section 16 Shah Alam will soon be rebuilt.

Its controversial demolition by the state government in 2007 had led to the Indians turning their backs on BN.

seri maha mariamman temple replacement land pronouncement 210910 01The Selangor exco in charge of non-Muslim houses of worship, Dr Xavier Jayakumar, officially pronounced the 15,000 square feet of land which is located near the original site, gazetted as temple land in perpetuity.

"Tomorrow, the state exco meeting will also approve an allocation of RM300,000 to go to the construction of the temple," added Dr Xavier.

The state exco announced this to the 30-odd crowd at the temple construction site in a press conference after unveiling the project signboard.

He also explained that the land was ceded by the developer to be gazetted as temple land after a marathon session of 17 meetings with all parties concerned.

This gesture by the Pakatan state government shall soon see this house of worship returned to the Hindu devotees who have been resettled in a nearby high-rise residential project.

The temple's Hindu devotee association secretary M Muniandy who gave the welcome address at the beginning of the event expressed the resident's gratitude to the Pakatan-led state government for their efforts in securing new land for their house of worship.

"We are touched by the the state government's efforts and the excos who have worked to solve our woes," said Muniandy.

The event was preceded by a prayer recited by the temple's priest.

Also present during the even were fellow excos, Pandamaran assemblyperson Ronnie Liu and Batu Tiga assemblyperson Rodziah Ismail as well as representatives from Hindu Sanggam, Klang municipal councillors and local residents.

The temple, along with the squatter settlement of Rimba Jaya, was demolished in 2007 by the then BN-led state government as part of its Zero Squatter programme.

It resulted in intense protests by Indian groups and was said to be a trigger for the historic Hindraf rally on Nov 25 that year.

[Source: Mkini]



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