Quarry workers defy order
Work still going on at illegal mine despite Penang govt injunction
GEORGE TOWN: The quarry illegally mining thousands of tonnes of granite in Teluk Bahang is still seemingly operational despite a stop-work order by the Penang Island City Council (MBPP).
A check by The Star on Tuesday saw workers moving about in the quarry and loud knocking sounds could be heard periodically from about 200m away where a school – SJK(C) Eok Hua – is located.
State Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the state would look into it and if work was still being carried out, action would be taken.
“MBPP’s probe into the quarry has been completed and they are submitting it to the relevant parties.
“If they are still operating despite the stop-work order, then we need to investigate what they are doing down there,” he said.
Former Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu questioned the MBPP’s handling of the issue.
He said there was a need to know if the MBPP did anything to ensure the quarry had stopped entirely.
“We were informed that the MBPP issued stop-work twice to the operator,” he said when met outside the school on Tuesday.
On Oct 1, The Star exposed the active quarry, which was supposed to have been shut down in 2002.
MBPP mayor Datuk Yew Tung Seang was quoted as saying after the quarry operator ignored MBPP’s stop-work order, the city council lodged a police report last month.
Officials from the state government also found heavy metals in a river about 2km from the sea.
Teh, who is now Parti Sosialis Malaysia central committee member, raised two concerns, one being the quarry where the granite was being cut into square blocks and the hill clearing above the site.
“We would like to know if the blocks are for export and if the hill cutting above the quarry site is a separate development.
“We are not sure if MBPP is aware of the quarry and the hill cutting.
“We have noticed the hill clearing and would like to know if it is true.
“We also want the council to disclose full details of the stop-work order and reasons for it,” he said.
Teh said when he was a state assemblyman in 2016, he posed a written question to then Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng about the number of quarries in Penang.
“In the reply, this quarry was not mentioned among the 28 in the state.
“Why was it not mentioned if a stop work order was issued to the operator?” asked Teh, who was joined by Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) Penang committee member Chua Cheong Wee under their Socialist Progressive Front initiative.