STATE GOVT ISSUES STOP-WORK ORDER TO FACILITATE INVESTIGATION

SHAH ALAM (Malaysia), May 29 (Bernama) -- The state of Selangor government
has issued a stop-work order on the project site where the former Jaya
Supermarket building collapsed on Thursday.

This is to allow the Department of Occupational Safety and Health
and Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram) to study and report on the
incident.

"The stop-work order is for seven days from today," Chief Minister Abdul
Khalid Ibrahim said when asked to comment on the incident after chairing
the Selangor Economic Action Council meeting, here, Friday.

So far, three were reported dead, two injured and another four victims have
not been found yet by the search and rescue team.

Abdul Khalid said the report would not only touch on the causes of the
incident, but would also recommend preventive steps to prevent it from
recurring.

"The state has asked the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) to monitor
the area around the clock to ensure that no machinery or equipment used in the
demolition of the building be taken out of the site so as to allow proper
investigation," he said.

MBPJ was also asked to cordon off the project site for the safety of
nearby residents and the search and rescue workers.

"The state has also ordered MBPJ to treat all the deceased with dignity in
accordance with their religious belief, and that their next of kin are informed
about the tragedy," he said.

MBPJ was told to work closely with the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur
as all the workers who were trapped when the building collapsed are Indonesians.

An information centre would be set up near the tragedy area so that the
victims' families and nearby residents could monitor the developments, Abdul
Khalid said.

He said a briefing by MBPJ officials during the economic action council
meeting revealed that there was a serious lack of proper guidelines in
monitoring demolition work on buildings in Selangor.

Therefore, the state government would work on proper guidelines on building
demolition to ensure that such an incident would not happen again, he said.

Asked about the investigation, he said the initial investigation found that
too many heavy machinery were put on the building floor, but he would leave it
to the experts like Ikram to investigate and report on the actual factors that
had caused the building to collapse.
-- BERNAMA