Jawatankuasa Gabungan Isu Perumahan secretary Ameer Khan Bargathalli said the developer, Uttara Land Sdn Bhd, may not be completely at fault.

However, he said, there were several irregularities in the method employed to identify and compensate the affected residents.

Ameer questioned the eligibility of some of those who received compensation under the scheme.

“Some have been successful as they were included in a DBKL list even though they were not in possession of a temporary occupation licence, while many more deserving residents were rejected.

“There are also residents with multiple claims,” he told FMT, adding that the list drawn up by DBKL contained instances of multiple persons being registered as owners of the same unit.

He also said only selected residents were offered compensation which took the form of a replacement home and a one-off payment, and that Uttara Land had bypassed the association when contacting them.

According to Ameer, those contacted were made to sign a form to be eligible under the scheme.

“These homeowners were told that if they did not sign the form, they would not be entitled to the replacement home and compensation payment,” he said.

He said a ballot was then carried out to determine which replacement unit they were entitled to.

Ameer also questioned the method employed by the developer to determine how much compensation is payable to each successful homeowner.

Uttara Land director Anuar Idris confirmed that not all residents were contacted. He said his company only dealt with those DBKL issued relocation letters to.

Anuar also denied Ameer’s allegation that some residents were compensated more than once.

Earlier this month, the association handed DBKL a memorandum highlighting the plight of 17 residents who had been denied compensation.

The association also claimed a DBKL census carried out on residents affected by the project was “biased and not comprehensive”, according to two news reports.

It said its own survey uncovered many inconsistencies, and that many single and elderly residents were excluded from the census.

“We urge the new KL mayor, Maimunah Sharif, to look into this issue and settle it once and for all. The complete recipient list should be given to us.

“We want these ‘lottery draws’ to be abolished. We also hope DBKL will identify erroneous claims and recall all replacement units already delivered, so that these can go to the deserving residents,” he said.