SHAH ALAM, 13 Mar: The decision by the Selangor government to cancel the master agreement on the restructuring of the water industry was decided in a joint meeting between the Exco line-up and the Pakatan Rakyat Water Committee on March 8.
The Exco for Infrastructure, Public Amenities and Agro-based Industries, Zaidy Abdul Talib, said that the same matter was also discussed in detail with the Exco line-up previously.
“The decision involves the roles and actions of the executive. It was discussed in depth at the Exco meeting previously.
“It was also discussed again with the Pakatan Rakyat Water Committee two days before (March 8) the Chief Minister announced the decision of the cancellation in Parliament on March 10,” he told Selangor Kini.
Elaborating, Zaidy said that there was no issues raised about placing the role of the Assemblymen in the matter, instead an information forum will be organised in the near future to provide clarification to all state people’s representatives.
“We are doing our best in this regard. In making decisions, we involve the role of the executive and committees involved.
“Meanwhile for the question of rationalising the decision, we will hold a joint consensus meeting with the Assemblymen,” he said.
Zaidy expects for the joint consensus to take place before the 3rd Term Session of the 13th Selangor State Assembly (DNS) on March 30.
“This is what is being discussed at the Exco meeting this week. There is yet to be an exact date, but we will try to hold it in the near future, preferably before the DNS session begins,” he said.
The restructuring of the Selangor water industry expired on its own because the central government did not respect the principles and spirit of the agreement, including acknowledging the sovereignty of Selangor’s land and water assets.
At least 26,000 kilometres of land where the water pipe is being placed is the asset in the agreement which the central government wants to take over.
Instead, the Selangor government only agreed to hand over the water assets that have been upgraded by the concessionaires.
NS
