Laporan akhbar The Star 24 June 2010 mendakwa bahawa pasir bernilai jutaan ringgit telah secara haram dikeluarkan dari Sungai Johor. Dan ini telah berlaku sejak 3 tahun yang lalu. Penyiasat The Star mendapati pasir tersebut dijual ke Singapura. Siap dengan peta terperinci lagi macam mana pasir Johor ini dibawa keluar. TPM kata Khalid tak mampu urus isu curi pasir, nampaknya kena batang hidung TPM sendiri.
Adakah penyiasat akhbar The Star lagi cekap dari Polis Malaysia dan SPRM ?
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KHALID TAK MAMPU URUS ISU CURI PASIR: TPM
Berita Harian 14 Julai 2010
KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin menegaskan isu kecurian pasir yang semakin meruncing di Selangor amat membimbangkan kerana khazanah alam sekitar dirosakkan dengan rakus atas kepentingan peribadi, sekali gus membuktikan kerajaan negeri pimpinan Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim tidak mampu menguruskan isu itu.
Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata, perkara itu sangat serius dan seperti terabai tanpa diambil tindakan tegas oleh kerajaan negeri serta seolah-olah ada pihak bersubahat atau mungkin berlaku elemen rasuah. “Bagi saya, soal (isu kecurian pasir) yang agak mudah tetapi menjadi rumit hanya kerana tidak mahu mengambil tindakan tegas... hentikan perkara itu, tangkap saja siapa yang membuat kesalahan dan hukum kerana (kerajaan negeri Selangor) kata kerajaan mereka bersih. “Apabila tindakan tidak dilakukan bermakna subahat. Ia perkara yang agak mudah, mengapa tidak ambil tindakan. Bukan hendak bincang dalam dewan negeri tetapi tindakan tegas pihak kerajaan negeri.
“Jelas, kerajaan Abdul Khalid macam tidak mampu menguruskan perkara sebegitu. Dia ada penasihat... dia pakar. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim penasihat kerajaan negeri, tetapi dia tidak tahu hendak urus soal pasir,” katanya.
Muhyiddin berkata, isu kecurian pasir di Selangor sudah terdedah seluas-luasnya dalam media, termasuk dikatakan ada pihak mahu mengaut keuntungan ratusan juta ringgit.
Justeru, beliau berkata, kerajaan Selangor tidak boleh berdiam diri kerana bidang kuasa berkaitan tanah, pasir dan sumber adalah di bawah pihak berkenaan dan bukan Kerajaan Pusat.
“Semua orang bimbang apabila keadaan pasir yang cantik, alam sekitar yang elok, diganggu hanya kerana untuk kepentingan diri dengan rakus,” katanya.
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The Star Thursday June 24, 2010
SAND PIRATES: MILLIONS FLOATED OUT OF THE COUNTRY VIA SUNGAI JOHOR
JOHOR BARU: Sand worth millions of ringgit is being illegally “floated” out of the country daily via Sungai Johor here. And this has been going on for the past three years.
A Starprobe team investigating this lucrative trade found that the sand ends up in Singapore, despite a ban on sand export imposed by the Malaysian Government.
Sand extraction is a common sight along the river as mining syndicates illegally transport millions of tonnes of sand, even on weekends and public holidays, via Danga Bay and Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
The culprits use barges to pass through the international waters from Kota Tinggi and Ulu Tiram before arriving at local ports for shipment to Singapore.
The probe revealed that the barges are directed towards a private jetty or landing point at Pulau Punggol Timur in Singapore where the sand is unloaded.
A Singaporean company, which obtains the sand from a Malaysian partner, supplies it to the Housing Development Board of Singapore to cater for construction projects in the island republic.
The Starprobe team’s visit to the landing point revealed that the sand from the barges was loaded onto trucks before being taken to the private storage area.
The Pulau Punggol Timur jetty is believed to be used to solely stock up sand.
The private jetty is filled with sand mounds, mostly from Malaysia, and some from neighbouring countries.
To circumvent the Malaysian ban on sand export, the syndicates are believed to be exporting this highly sought-after material as processed or “packed” silica sand, an item that can be exported.
By obtaining sand from its Malaysian partner, the Singaporean company is making huge profits as it only pays S$30 per cubic metre compared with S$40 for the same amount of sand from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
It is estimated that since August 2007, more than three million cubic metres of sand has been smuggled out through Sungai Johor.
Starprobe’s findings also revealed that more than 90% of the sand was extracted from Sungai Johor while the rest was from sand mines from the Kota Tinggi and Johor Baru districts.
Further investigation revealed that the illegal business started after a contract worth RM62.4 mil was awarded by the Malaysian Drainage and Irrigation Department to a private company to carry out redesigning and rectification works of Sungai Johor.
This involved deepening and widening a 12km stretch of the river mouth from Kota Tinggi towards Singapore.
Checks revealed that since the project also involved sand extraction from the river, a total of three million cubic metres of sand had been mined from the river.
Based on the calculation that the sand is being sold at S$30 per cubic metre, the syndicates could have raked in RM207mil over the two-year period of the project.
After the project’s completion, the syndicates continued to extract sand from the river, purportedly for local use but instead “exported” it to Singapore.
It is also learnt that an average of three sand-laden barges are transported out of Sungai Johor daily. A total of 326 barges of sand are believed to have been smuggled into Singapore over the past four months.
The syndicates have made an estimated RM44.9mil from the sale of 652,000 cubic metres of sand over the four months, which means they have pocketed a total of RM251.9mil from the illegal sale of sand to Singapore over the past three years.
The Government has also sustained heavy losses due to the fact that the sand is freely smuggled out.
The Government should have collected not less than RM37.5mil in taxes from the transaction based on RM12.50 for exporting per cubic metre of silica sand.
A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission source confirmed that it had received a tip-off on the involvement of government officials related to the sand stealing activity.
The source also revealed that the commission had tipped off the relevant government authorities on its findings.
On Feb 9, The Star reported that several government officials were charged with accepting bribes for allowing the smuggling of sand into Singapore.
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