State investment arm Penang Development Corporation (PDC) has accused state BN chief Teng Chang Yeow of "trying to bully" its general manager Rosli Jaafar over the delivery of affordable housing.

PDC director A Thanasekaran said Teng had been "lying" that PDC has no plan to build affordable housing, for there were plans to construct more than 19,000 units priced from RM72,500 to RM400,000 a unit.

Over the last five years, nearly 4,000 units of low- and medium-low cost houses have been built by the Pakatan Rakyat state government, while another 9,000 units have been delivered by the private sector.

NONE"Teng (right) is not even a professional. He must remember that Rosli is a professional architect and is only doing his job as a civil servant when he followed the guidelines set by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak," Thanasekaran said in a statement.

He was refuting a Feb 2 Bernama report quoting Teng as saying that PDC has no plans for affordable housing.

In the report, Teng, who is Gerakan secretary-general, had also accused the PDC of being "simply not capable at all".

On Jan 30, Bernama quoted Teng as saying that the state government’s “so-called” affordable housing units - earmarked for Jalan SP Chelliah in George Town at a ceiling price of RM400,000 for 1,000sq-ft of floor space - were well beyond the reach of those earning less than RM5,000 a month.

Rosli responded, saying Teng's comment was "untruthful and irresponsible criticism". He said he had merely followed the Budget 2013, in which the price ceiling was set at RM400,000 in urban areas and RM72,500 to RM220,000 in the rural areas.

‘Najib set the price ceiling’

Thanasekaran said the majority of the houses built by PDC cost between RM72,500 and RM220,000.

Yet, he noted, Teng continued to use the BN media to lie that the Pakatan state government was only building units that cost RM400,000.

"While Teng dares to attack the PDC on the matter, he does not dare attack Najib, who actually set the RM400,000 price ceiling in the first place," he said.

NONE"Clearly, Teng shows that he is no different from the previous Gerakan leaders who bully the weak and submit only to the rapacious Umno.”

Thanasekaran said Rosli has been tasked by Penang Chief Minister and PDC chairperson Lim Guan Eng (left) to implement state’s special RM500 million affordable housing fund.

Rosli was told to follow the federal government’s price-range for affordable housing as Lim did not want the issue to be controversial and to be politicised, he added.

"However, clearly for the BN, everything that Pakatan does is wrong. If we follow federal guidelines, it is wrong; (if we) do not follow, (we are) also wrong.”