Source : Sunday Times - 12 Apr 2009
I read with shock the recent news about Renaissance Properties winning the tender for the new Sengkang wet market with a bid of $500,100 a month (’Sengkang folk worried over high wet-market bid’, April 5).
The reply by the Housing Board in the report is that prices are determined by the private operators and it is in their own interest to price their food and goods affordably.
Has HDB’s role changed? Being a government agency, shouldn’t the HDB ensure that food and goods prices at such places stay affordable for citizens?
The awarding of the tender to the highest bidder as well as the nonchalant way in which its reply was framed suggest that the HDB is now profit-driven.
This should not be the case.
What are HDB’s reasons for not giving the tender to the second-
highest bidder, Sembawang New Market?
Is the HDB setting a precedent, and would this then spiral down to the housing sector, leading to flats that are exorbitantly priced?
Zhuang Kuan Song
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