While Amirudin acknowledged that he had the power to halt the degazettement of parts of the forest reserve, which was carried out in May, he warned that this could lead to possible legal action by developers with interests in the area.
He was responding to a FMT report yesterday in which former Selangor menteri besar Khir Toyo said that the government of the day had the power to cancel the degazettement of any area if it believed that it was not a good move.
“He (Khir) has to look at the mirror,” said Amirudin.
“The state government is at risk of being sued up to RM1 billion due to land grabs carried out in 2008 and so on,” he told reporters after an event at the 1 Utama Shopping Centre here.
In a Bernama report last Monday, Amirudin said the state government will go ahead with the degazettement of the land, said to be the size of about 1,000 football fields, to avoid legal action by companies with interests in it.
He said the delisting of parts of the reserve was approved by the previous state government in 2000.
Khir, who was Selangor menteri besar from 2000 to 2008, yesterday told FMT he had no details about the degazettement of the Bukit Cherakah forest reserve.
Khir also said there was no need for Amirudin to pass the buck to previous administrations.
Responding to Khir’s rebuke, Amirudin once again insisted that Khir should take responsibility.
“He said don’t pass the responsibility onto the previous administration, but he was the menteri besar before this. He has to take responsibility,” said Amirudin.
Two environmental NGOs – the Shah Alam Community Forest Society (SACF) and Khazanah Alam Malaysia (Peka) – are challenging the legality of the Selangor state government’s degazettement of the land.
According to a judicial review application sighted by FMT, the NGOs said the decision to degazette the area was made 22 years ago and was therefore stale.
They argued that it was also illegal for the state government to backdate the gazette notification issued on May 5 this year by the Selangor forestry department to refer to the decision of the state executive council in 2000.