MIC supreme council member Rajah Symon said the authorities should not take “their own sweet time” as some of the longhouse dwellers had waited for proper housing for 35 years.

“From what I understand, they’ve already made a complaint to MACC, and MACC has given a statement saying there’s no corruption in this project,” he told reporters here today.

Rajah said the project should not be cancelled as public funds would have to be used as compensation.

“If Hannah Yeoh (the Segambut MP) really wants to take care of the poor people in the longhouses, she should get a developer to build townhouses for them, without taking money from the government,” he said.

Rajah said the development project had been scaled down from more than 300 affordable houses to 206, while the proposed service apartment would consist of four blocks instead of eight.

He said he would give his full support to Yeoh if she acted on the matter urgently.

“Don’t take your own sweet time, people have waited for over 37 years for this,” he said.

The Taman Rimba Kiara project has seen Yeoh lock horns with Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad, who gave the green light for the project despite objections from Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) residents.

The proposed project is a joint venture between the FT ministry’s Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan and Memang Perkasa Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Malton Bhd.

Several reports had been lodged with MACC by the TTDI residents’ association and the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) on possible conflict of interest and abuse of power.