The party’s assistant secretary, Teo Yin Horng, said the state housing committee should quickly correct the flaws to cripple this syndicate.
He urged the state government to review its housing policy and introduce an effective machinery to monitor and supervise the sale and purchase of low-medium cost houses.
“Due to the bad housing policy, conmen are preying on ignorant and innocent Penangites. If not because of limited availability of LMCs being sold at high price with high hidden cost, such a situation would not have happened,” said Teo in a statement yesterday.
He cited several incidents of successful applicants being forced to take up and sign the supplementary refurbishment and renovation packages by housing developers.
Teo, who is also chairman of the Sungai Nibong residents committeem, said any supplementary refurbishment and renovation package should be an option and not a necessity, and successful applicants should be allowed to engage their own contractor.
He accused state executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo, who is in charge of housing, of failing in his duty to properly monitor the state housing application system.
He suggested that Jagdeep should make way for a more competent state assemblyman to take over his post.
Teo suggested that the state housing committee place all applications on the waiting list and inform applicants every year of their application status.
“This procedure will allow the state government to vet the latest financial position of the inspiring applicants and, based on the data collected, the relevant state authority can formulate and allocate the houses to the most qualified purchasers,” said Teo.
Last week Jagdeep had revealed that four people were cheated of some RM40,000 by a syndicate pertaining to The Rise mixed housing development in Jalan SP Chelliah, George Town.
City police have detained a 41-year-old suspect to assist in the investigations for cheating.
Jagdeep had said the victims were duped into believing that they could each buy a RM72,000 flat in The Rise by paying RM300 for the application form and another RM11,000 as under table money to confirm their purchase.
The victims were given a guarantee letter, on note paper bearing the state government letterhead, and the signatures of two officers from the state housing department.
Jagdeep said the housing department had never collected any additional fees, and the letterhead and the signatures were fake.