BB BE: Dr Chee’s $24m question

by Hamzah Omar Yaacob

EVERYTHING structural is becoming tangled up in Bukit Batok. So the People’s Action Party (PAP) announced a $1.9m Neighbourhood Renewal Programme but it looks like part of something already announced in GE2015, according to the Jurong-Clementi Town Council website.

Now, Singapore Democratic Party’s (SDP) Chee Soon Juan is wondering about what happened to former MP David Ong’s $24 million plan that was part of the Jurong-Clementi Town Council’s five-year masterplan for Bukit Batok SMC. He wants his PAP rival Mr Murali Pillai to give an update on these plans.

“Mr Murali, I think, needs to address this issue and be able to tell Bukit Batok residents what has been going on. You don’t just discard $24 million of projects, and then make promises, and then when the by-election comes, forget about all that, and then say I’ll give $1.9 million,” Dr Chee said during a press conference minutes after his nomination speech at Keming Primary School.

Mr Ong’s plans had included HDB initiatives like “Remaking our Heartland” and “Revitalising our Shops” . They featured projects like a herb and Community Garden, and a sheltered market street. The $1.9 million NRP, unveiled by Mr Murali on Sunday (April 22), was also included in the town’s masterplan and is, according to the Jurong-Clementi Town Council website, in the “design stage”. Other programmes include a sensory park at Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, the higher adoption of the Home Improvement Programme (HIP), three-generation fitness parks and more sheltered walkways, all of which featured in Mr Murali’s manifesto released yesterday (April 26).

So what gives? Is the NRP new or not? Given that the PAP said it had consulted residents before GE2015, this doesn’t seem like a brainchild of Mr Murali. He was carrying on a town council effort.

But people will be hard pressed to understand how everything fits together. The fight in Bukit Batok is turning on acronyms like NRP and HIP and involves HDB and URA which, by the way, has its own 10 to 15 year masterplans involving various planning areas.

To clarify, the NRP unveiled earlier by Mr Murali is a HDB initiative. Introduced in 2007, the NRP, according to HDB’s website, is “fully funded by the Government and implemented by the Town Councils”. Town Councils have ultimately apply for G funding to carry out NRPs devised by them. The PAP in its response to SDP member Dr Paul Tambyah, alluded to the fact that since Bukit Batok SMC will no longer come under Jurong-Clementi Town Council if Dr Chee is elected, it cannot continue with its NRP plans there.

What about the string of other projects? Are these G-funded initiatives or strictly town-council funded initiatives?

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also thinks this should be clarified, during an exchange with Dr Tambyah while waiting for nominations to close. DPM Tharman agreed with Dr Tambyah that people could get confused given the multitude of schemes: “I accept that. There are many different levels also… Government, town council, and then purely voluntary things.”

Nonetheless, are the G’s purse strings blind of politics? Mr Murali said during a doorstop interview that the NRP was “funding neutral” and added that “whoever Bukit Batok residents chooses, will have the responsibility to lead the town council to implement the NRP”.

This is correct. If Dr Chee is elected, it is for SDP town council to devise its own NRP and apply for funding. The complication, however, is what does the Jurong Town Council mean by the NRP being in “the design stage” and just how much has been spent?

It looks like the SDP has done some homework on the town council. Let’s see how the PAP responds.

 

Featured image by Vincent Ng.

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The post BB BE: Dr Chee’s $24m question appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Hamzah Omar Yaacob