NEVVSTRATINTIMES Penang Island Municipal Council has found

NEVVSTRATINTIMES
Pic by Muhammad Mikail Ong
Penang Island Municipal Council has found one
of the two parties which cleared land illegally on Bukit Kukus
Report by MAN KEN UN on page 2
JA
Landowner,
contractor
face suit for
hill clearing
The local council is
taking legal action against the two
parties believed to be responsible for
illegally clearing land on Bukit Kukus
HOT ON THEIR HEELS:
GEORGE TOWN
penang@nst.com.my
O
NE of two culprits, allegedly
responsible for clearing some
plots of land on Bukit Kukus
without permission from the local
authority, have been identified.
A Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) engineering department
spokesman said that the landowner
*had sub-leased a plot of land to a
contractor.
"We have discovered that they
were both responsible for stripping
the few remaining green lungs in
Penang.
"Our legal department has identified the landowner but has yet to
ascertain who the contractor is," he
said.
The spokesman said that MPPP
will sue both the landowner and
contractor for causing environmental degradation.
He said the legal proceedings had
been held back for now as MPPP
needed more time to get its paperwork ready to act against the
landowner and contractor.
MPPP secretary Ang Aing Thye
had said the council will proceed
with legal action against the
landowner for allegedly felling the
trees near Paya Terubong.
Ang has asked the legal department to liaise with the deputy public
prosecutor's office to speed up the
process of hauling those believed to
be responsible for illegally clearing
at least two plots of land on Bukit
Kukus to court.
He said they will be charged under
Section 70A(1) of the Street,
Drainage and Building Act 1974, for
the felling the trees on a hill slope,
and Section 70A(5) of the same Act,
for defying a stop-work order issued
on Sept 25, last year.
If found guilty, they face a max-
Residents and environmentalists are concerned about the land-clearing activities on Bukit Kukus which were
carried out without permission.
imum fine of RM50,000.
Tanjung Bungah assemblyman
Teh Yee Cheu earlier highlighted
that Bukit Kukus, some 400m above
sea level, was in a sorry state with
bald patches visible from afar.
Teh, known as the Green YB, had
also provided photographic evidence of massive land clearing and
tree felling on Bukit Kukus. Residents in the area had expressed their
concern over possible landslips.
Barely a year after the clearing of
land on Bukit Relau, which is about
3km away, the latest destruction of
the few remaining green Jung on the
island has angered environmentalists, state administrators and residents living nearby Bukit Kukus, in
the Taman Terubong Jaya housing
estate.
The incident had also infuriated
state Local Government, Traffic and
Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow who was fuming over the illegal hill clearing,
which came to light last month.
Chow had called for MPPP to act
against the culprits without further
delay.
MPPP had issued a stop-work order to the landowner on Sept 25 last
year when it first spotted the hill
clearing.
A second stop-work order was issued on June 17 when the landowner
failed to take remedial action on the
bald patch.
The landowner did not submit a
detailed mitigation plan to repair
the barren hill slope and the delay
prompted the council to issue the
second stop-work order.
The landowner was supposed to
stop land clearing works and place
tarpaulin sheets on the exposed
slope. However, land clearing continued and the bald patch has grown
to about the size of a football field.
The landowner had verbally
agreed to minimise the environmental degradation but did not honour its word.
The latest case of hilltop clearing
serves as a alarming reminder that
illegal land clearing, especially in
remote and hilly areas, continues
unabated despite the Bukit Relau
debacle which saw General Accomplishment Sdn Bhd slapped with a
revised fine of RM50,000 by the
Court of Appeal for failing to submit
earthwork plans as required by Section 70A of the Street, Drainage and
Building Act 1974.
Page 1 pic: The bald patch on
Bukit Kukus is making residents
living nearby jittery.