TNAG-0317-FCO40-353-Policy-of-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-problem-of-s-1971 — Page 51

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Since the Department and other department officials want to work out procedure this is, of course, beyond the control of the Management Select Committee.

MRS. ELLIOTT:-Mr. Chairman, just one other question, is the Chairman of the Management Select Committee aware that the Social Welfare Department is turning down desperately needy cases on the grounds that the Resettlement Department can't deal with them now?

CHAIRMAN:-I must rule that out of order, Mrs. ELLIOTT, as it has no bearing on your present question.

MR. HU:-I should think, Mr. Chairman, under the old criteria probably there were cases where we criticized the criteria as being too strict. We hope that in future there will be no such cases.

MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Mr. Chairman, I had written a letter to the Resettlement Department last month in regard to a backlog of 600 cases which have been existing since 1968, and I have just received a letter from the department saying that the general guide lines for clear- ing this backlog have all been worked out and that the Department hopes to clear up this backlog within two to three months. May I suggest that the Resettlement Management Select Committee review this question of backlog three months hence and see what still requires to be done?

MR. HU:-We will do that.

MR. Lo:-Mr. Chairman, I am sory I have to ask a supplementary on this because the Chairman of the Management Select Committee gave the impression just now that the criteria was only to be changed in one way namely, to widen the scope for people to get resettled and as a result. The answer was that the procedure was improved, therefore clearing up the backlog and satisfying the spirit of the Management Committee meeting. I would like to ask whether this was so because, in fact, it wasn't so at that time. We found the criteria to be wrong, it wasn't that it was too high.

CHAIRMAN:-I must rule your question out of order as well. The question deals with procedure and the question of procedure has been dealt with. I would like to move to the next question: criteria are not involved at this stage.

(9) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question:-

Why are new blocks of flats in Tsz Wan Shan standing empty while families in Wong Tai Sin are living in appallingly overcrowded conditions?