KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) today announced that the government has agreed to extend the land lease for Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Convent Bukit Nanas for another 60 years.
The lease was supposed to end on Sept 6.
“After scrutinising and considering the contribution made by the school since its formation in 1899, the government has agreed to extend the lease on this property located at Jalan Bukit Nanas here for another 60 years,” the statement from PMO read.
“The approval is given for educational purposes only.”
PMO hopes the lease renewal will further spur the school to achieve continuous success as a top-achiever school.
A discussion was held prior to this, whereupon Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali discussed the terms of the lease extension with the school’s Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, Sister Mary Theresa Chua. Also present were her lawyers Datuk Joshua Kevin and Damien Chan, along with the Federal Territory Land and Mines (PTG) director Datuk Muhammad Yasir Yahya.
In a separate statement, Chua, who represented the school’s board of trustees, expressed her gratitude to the government for the lease extension.
“We thank God Almighty for giving us the grace and privilege to continue our vocation to educate children in this beautiful country. We also thank Malaysians for their love, care and concern towards the well-being of Convent Bukit Nanas, which has been educating children for some 122 years.
“The support for the school demonstrated over the past days has certainly encouraged us, particularly the teachers, who have toiled to ensure the children continue to receive a good education,” Chua said.
theedgemarkets.com previously reported that the school, with 877 secondary school students, had filed a judicial review to challenge the non-extension of the lease for the land that was supposed to expire on Sept 6.
In 2017, the Lady Superior wrote to the PTG to apply for the extension, but only received a reply in a letter dated December last year informing her of the non-renewal of the lease.
On Monday, High Court’s Justice Datuk Noorin Badarudin granted leave (permission) for the merits of the judicial review to be heard at another date but the court fixed next month to hear the stay application.
See Original: Yatim, H., Lam, J. W., & Tan, C. C. (2021T-04-22). Putrajaya agrees to extend Convent Bukit Nanas land lease for another 60 years. Theedgemarkets.Com.
