{"id":4842,"date":"2009-05-20T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T15:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/?p=4842"},"modified":"2009-05-20T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2009-05-20T15:42:12","slug":"angry-parents-protest-at-petronas-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/tamil-schools\/2009\/05\/20\/angry-parents-protest-at-petronas-station\/","title":{"rendered":"angry parents protest at petronas station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/tamil-schools\/2009\/05\/20\/what-happens-when-school-is-located-in-wrong-place\/\" target=\"_blank\">gas leak or not&#8221;<\/a> fiasco at Petronas gas station in Kemuning,\u00a0 the parents of affected students from SJKT Ladang Emerald <a href=\"http:\/\/thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2009\/5\/20\/nation\/20090520210434&amp;sec=nation\" target=\"_blank\">held a protes<\/a>t at the station:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Angry parents gathered at a gas station in Bukit Kemuning on Wednesday to protest against an alleged gas leak that resulted in their children being rushed to hospital on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the mishap 70 students, three teachers and a cleaner from SRK (T) Ladang Emerald suffered breathing difficulties after inhaling fumes from the nearby Petronas station that regulated and transferred gas flow to industrial and residential areas in the Klang Valley.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The alleged leak is believed to have happened when <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>maintenance work <\/strong><\/span>was being carried out by a Petronas team.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Coalition of Malaysian Indian NGOs secretary Gunaraj George, who was at the gas station on Wednesday, said it was alarming that such an incident could happen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe are now very frightened as we may be dealing with a potential time bomb.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What will happen if there is a larger emission of the stuff which made the children experience breathing difficulties and faint? Is it safe for them to come to school here?<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d said Gunaraj.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All the teachers and students were given outpatient treatment and discharged except for the cleaner A. Nanthini, 40, who wa admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A four-year-old daughter of the school\u2019s canteen operator, who was also exposed to the fumes on Tuesday, was rushed to hospital Wednesday after she appeared to be listless and was not able to consume food.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Parent-Teacher Association chairman S. Murugiah said they would be lodging a police report against the station owner and would also initiate legal proceedings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also at the gathering was V. Ganabatirau, former Internal Security Act detainee and legal adviser to the now outlawed Hindu Rights Action Force movement. His niece Jayabarathi, 9, was also one of the effected students.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shah Alam City Council councillor K. Uthayasoorian, who was at the scene, said the maintenance team had obviously not followed standard operating procedures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Firstly, notice must be sent to all parties nearby informing them of the maintenance work. Secondly, such work must only be carried out at night or during the weekends when there arent many people around<\/strong><\/span>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Uthayasoorian also <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>claimed that Petronas had not sent a crisis management team<\/strong><\/span> to the site after the mishap to explain to parents and teachers what had happened.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kota Raja Member of Parliament Dr Siti Maria Mahmud said the onus was now on Petronas to pay for medical check-ups for all the students to ensure that they were alright.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAn independent probe into the incident must also be initiated and petrochemical experts engaged to conduct it must be from outside Petronas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Petronas Gas Shah Alam area manager Mohd Isa Adam said <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>company officials had gone to the school and spoken to a teacher<\/strong><\/span> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>wanted to speak to the parents today but the headmaster was away on a course <\/strong><\/span>and would only be back on Friday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cSo we will be meeting the parents and all relevant parties on Friday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Mohd Isa, the station is owned by Petronas and is used to channel gas to Gas Malaysia clients in the Klang valley.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So, who will take the blame this time? Petronas, town planner? local council? state government? developer? MIC?\u00a0 Education Ministry? What would the solution be? Promise that it won&#8217;t happen again as the procedures will be tightened and adhered too? Or that the distance is acceptable and is according to international standard so its a one-off freak incident? This time school, next time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the &#8220;gas leak or not&#8221; fiasco at Petronas gas station in Kemuning,\u00a0 the parents of affected students from SJKT Ladang Emerald held a protest at the station: Angry parents gathered at a gas station in Bukit Kemuning on Wednesday to protest against an alleged gas leak that resulted in their children being rushed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[27,147,20],"class_list":["post-4842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","category-tamil-schools","tag-protest","tag-selangor","tag-tamil-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4844,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions\/4844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}