(Selangor, Thursday): In an NST news report today, the deputy director, Selangor Land & Mines Department, Othman Ismail, is quoted as saying: "The Selangor Land & Mines Department has obtained a Court Order to proceed with land acquisition for the building of an access road to the incinerator project site in Broga."

According to the solicitors for Alice Lee Yoke Kim and the villagers, Uma Parvathy Thotathri, the Selangor Land & Mines Department could not have obtained any form of order.

Othman Ismail also said that " Everything is settled. The High Court rejected the interim stay order against the project in October…"

This is certainly not true as the High Court of Malaya at Shah Alam, His Lordship Dato' Haji Suriady Halim Omar had on 13^th October 2005, instructed inter alia;

a.         That the application for interim stay order be set down for hearing on January 12^th , 2006.

b.         That certain other preliminary/ technical matters be referred to the deputy registration for decision/s.

The councils had appeared before the deputy registrar Puan Hasbi Hassan on 4 January 2006 and the matter has been adjourned to 24 February 2006, while the date fixed for the hearing before Dato' Haji Suriady has been vacated pending the matters before the deputy registrar.

Therefore, the matter is very much ongoing and as the Selangor Land & Mines Department is the Third Defendant in the matter, statements such as made by the deputy director is sub judice and could be construed as " Contempt of Court".

On Monday, in a meeting with DoE Director of Evaluation, Puan Halimah, DAP and the Broga No Incinerator Action Committee have separately submitted their objections to the   additional EIA report.

DAP continues to voice our objections on two major grounds, i.e. the exorbitantly high cost of incineration (more than RM 240 to burn a ton of rubbish versus RM 24 per ton for the traditional landfill method) and the cancer-causing dioxins and other toxic gases and fly ash posed as health hazards.

We have also criticized the Selangor Land and Mines Department for issuing letters to the Broga landowners, urging them to collect checks from its department at a time when the case is pending in courts and carrying out land acquisition works without going through the proper procedures.

In the meeting with the DoE officials, we also wanted the DoE to stop all works at the site before the courts have made their decisions.

We have also encouraged the Broga residents to lodge a police report to protect their rights and bring the culprits to book.