HIGHER EXPECTATION FOR SEBERANG PRAI
Council will have to improve services, as well as projects and service delivery, says Chow
THE nod given by the cabinet for the elevation of the Seberang Prai Municipal Council to city council is one that comes with challenges.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said he believed taxpayers’ expectations of the council would be greater with the city status.
“Taxpayers will expect more, now that they are living in a city. And it is incumbent upon the soon-to-be-created city council to improve on its services, as well as projects and services delivery in line with the aspirations and hopes of the people,” he said after presenting Hari Raya Aidilfitri hampers to Muslims here and in the surrounding areas.
Chow thanked the federal government for approving the application.
Penang now has two city councils, the other being the Penang Island City Council, which was approved in 2015.
Chow said with Seberang Prai being elevated to city status, expenditures were expected to increase.
“The council coffers will not be sufficient to fund everything. The state will help when needed.
“We also hope the federal government, through ministries, will approve economic, social and community projects for the council to ensure its infrastructures are in line with that of a city.”
On Sunday, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin had said the cabinet had approved the city status for Seberang Perai.
She had said the approval was given last week and it would take about two weeks for the documentation to be completed.
The Penang government had applied for the city status last December.
The Seberang Prai Municipal Council is the largest municipality in the country, administering three main districts with 54 localities.
With the elevation, Seberang Prai will become the country’s largest city council, covering 747.8sq km with a population of 946,200.
Seberang Prai, originally known as Province Wellesley, borders Kedah and Perak.
It was originally part of Kedah, but it was ceded to the British East India Company (EIC) in 1800.
The company acquired it purportedly as a defensive bulwark against any external attack for Kedah. It was named after a British officer.
It became part of Penang as a Straits Settlement under the EIC, and then a British Crown colony in 1867.
Seberang Prai was also part of the Bujang Valley civilisation.
The Cherok Tok Kun megalith in Bukit Mertajam, discovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions, implying that an early HinduBuddhist political entity in what is now Kedah had established control over parts of Seberang Prai sometime between the 5th and 6th centuries.