Pasting of Government Acquisition Notices on the Exterior of Rochor Centre Units

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for National Development in respect of the state acquisition of Rochor Centre (a) what is the rationale for (i) the need to paste acquisition notices on the exterior of all affected units; and (ii) asking residents to state the amount which they opine that they should be compensated for during the Collector of Land Revenue's inquiry meeting; and (b) whether such practices had been explained to the affected residents.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Khaw Boon Wan): Sir, the Land Acquisition Act requires the Collector of Land Revenue to post acquisition notices at convenient places at or near the land to be taken. This is to notify any interested persons to make their claims to compensation to the Collector.

We have received feedback that the posting of notices on the exterior of the flats is unpleasant for the owners. Hence, the Ministry of Law is removing this requirement, and replacing it with a requirement to publish notices in at least four daily newspapers, one each in each of the four official languages. This change is in the Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which will be moved in this House tomorrow.

As for the need for owners to state their claims at the Collector's Inquiry, this is to enable the Collector to take relevant claims and information into account when determining the statutory compensation in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act. After the statutory compensation is finalised and awarded to the owners, should the owners decide to make an appeal to the Appeals Board, the claims that the owners had earlier submitted will be considered by the Appeals Board.

For the acquisition of Rochor Centre, the Housing Development Board is appointed the Collector. In this role, HDB provides all relevant information and explains the acquisition process to the residents. For instance, during the Collector's Inquiry, HDB will invite the flat owners to submit a claim by asking them to fill up the claim form. HDB will also explain to the flat owners their right under the Land Acquisition Act. HDB officers have been working closely with the owners on the ground and helping them with their questions, including any queries on the compensation value that residents opine they should receive. The Collector's Inquiry is on-going and is scheduled to end on 8 March 2012.

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Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: I thank the Minister for the reply, and I really want to thank him for conveying to Ministry of Law about the need to change the practice of pasting the public notices on the doors and on the walls of the flats. Just one point -- my residents who have gone for the Collector's Inquiry meetings have spoken to me. Is the Ministry aware that some of the residents who are affected for the first time by Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) and acquisitions were asked how much their compensation of the flats should be. Some of them are quite clueless as to how to respond and, in fact, such questions do raise the expectations of some of the residents on how much they would really like to be compensated. Those who are not educated on this might not be sure about the amount they should put down, or how their compensation should be quantified. I think that is also a practice that may need to be improved. For consideration, please.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The answer is yes. We should all do our best to help them. These are, as the Member put it, some fairly old and senior members in our community and may not be as well clued on what to do. And I think it is an opportunity for the MPs and grassroots leaders, working together with HDB officers, to get them to understand their rights under the law. Information will be quite freely available. For example, the claims will be very much dependent on what is the prevailing market value of the flats at the time of acquisitions. On the HDB website, we have published the resale value of those flats. I am quite sure the residents should not have too much difficulty making claims. So far, we are halfway through the process. HDB officers have covered almost half of all the flats which are affected, and about two-thirds of them have already filed their claims.