Lands officials have been given a two-week ultimatum: reveal why they approved an indigenous village chief's request to restore fung shui by building a bridge or risk a Legislative Council inquiry.
The ultimatum was issued by activists campaigning against plans to upgrade a footbridge to a vehicular bridge in official compensation for the disruption of fung shui caused by tunnelling a kilometre away for the Hong Kong-Guangzhou rail line.
The group says if it doesn't get answers it will lodge a complaint with Legco as part of its campaign against the bridge upgrade in Kap Lung Village, in the Tai Lam Country Park in the New Territories. Eddie Tse Sai-kit, convenor of a group helping Kap Lung villagers, has written to Director of Lands Annie Tam Kam-lan to demand she disclose why the department approved the bridge, the scale of the project and its cost. The group also wants the names of departments consulted and their responses, and whether they required the fung shui claimant to declare personal interests.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Tam did not answer Tse's questions, saying the case was sent to their Yuen Long district office. Tse said that on Friday, he called Cheng Kwong-lok, from the Lands Department's railway development section, but did not get an immediate answer.
'If they reply that there is no system to prove the fung shui claim, and no system for declaration of personal interest, we will immediately complain to Legco's complaints division,' Tse said, as convener of the Columbarium Concern Group.
