‘Secret decision’ to allow factories in housing area
CAP blasts Penang government for flouting law, demands area be rezoned immediately.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The Consumers Association of Penang has accused state authorities of breaching the law by allowing conversions of shophouses for industrial premises on Penang island and demanded immediate action to rezone affected shophouses as residential areas again.
CAP president SM Mohamed Idris said the State Planning Committee had surreptitiously approved the conversion of several shophouses in Desa Jelita in Permatang Damar Laut, Batu Maung, in 2012.
Information relayed to CAP through the Public Complaints Bureau showed that the committee had confirmed on June 14, 2012 a decision made a month earlier to approve the conversion. He said the conversion was based on guidelines prepared by the Development Planning Department of the then municipal council.
Idris said industrial activities in houses and shophouses in residential zones were forbidden by the Town and Country Planning Act, and said the decisions by the department and the committee was contrary to the law.
“But the authorities had violated the law and legalised factory operations in residential zone,” said Idris in a statement here today.
He said the sanctity of residential zones in Penang was now at the mercy of the whims and fancies of the department and the state committee.
He pointed out that the SPC had previously also secretly approved the conversion of Bukit Relau from hill reserve land into a residential zone. A public outcry ensued after land clearing activities began, with residents now referring to it as “Bukit Botak”.
Idris said the Penang State Structure Plan called for ensuring a quality, comfortable and good life for its citizens in order for the state to achieve developed status.
Pointing to state government billboards trumpeting “Cleaner, Greener, Safer & Healthier Penang” all over the state, Idris asked: “Is it comfortable to live with factories beside your house?
“We don’t suppose any of those involved in the rezoning of the shophouses in Desa Jelita have factories as their neighbours. Could the SPC tell us how factories in residential zones make Penang cleaner, greener, safer and healthier with the pollution they bring into the residential zones?”
