GEORGE TOWN: Penang Develop-ment Corporation (PDC) has slammed state Barisan Nasional chairman Teng Chang Yeow for making “false criticism” against the state’s affordable housing programme.
PDC general manager Datuk Rosli Jaafar said he was shocked on learning about Teng’s remarks about the state government.
“He claimed that the state was insincere by setting high house prices which he said could not assist the poor and middle-income earners.
“How could he say PDC’s units are overpriced when they are priced the same as the Federal Govern-ment’s affordable housing (between RM72,500 and RM400,000 in urban areas and RM72,500 to RM220,000 in rural areas)?” he said in a statement.
Rosli explained that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced the top price range set at RM400,000 for urban areas in his 2013 Budget speech in September last year.
Teng was reported as saying the Pakatan Rakyat government did not have a housing policy and was unable to determine the pricing of houses.
Describing the affordable housing policy as misleading, Teng had said that the 12,000 medium- cost and LMC units in Batu Kawan priced between RM72,500 and RM220,000 each were not really affordable.
Rosli said that the Batu Kawan housing project would be of the best quality like those of Singa-pore’s Housing Development Board (HDB), dubbed as the best builder of affordable housing in the world, which was hired to consult PDC.
“It is also untrue for Teng to say that PDC is making profit from this affordable housing programme.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s press secretary Cheong Yin Fan, also in a statement, criticised Teng for defending the “Barisan (mainstream) media.”
“Lim had never used the ‘looking down’ reason as an excuse for not wanting to speak to reporters from The Star, New Straits Times, Berita Harian or Utusan Malaysia.”
On Jan 28, Lim had said that he would not give any verbal statements toThe Star but would issue written statements to the publication during the election period.
Following this, Teng had reportedly said that the state was looking down on reporters’ capabilities when Lim refused to give any verbal statements to The Star.
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