Mayor Datuk Patahiyah Ismail has issued a stop-work order to a developer that chopped down two 70-year-old raintrees for a road-widening project. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, March 14, 2016.A developer has been issued with a stop-work order by the Penang Island City Council after two raintrees that were almost 70 years old were found to have been chopped down, reported The Star Online.
It reported that the trees on Jalan Lembah Permai were possibly removed for a road-widening project.
Mayor Datuk Patahiyah Ismail issued the order after discovering the incident on Saturday.
Social activist Anil Netto had uploaded before and after photos of one of the trees on his blog.
“How many more trees will have to be chopped for the Pan Island Link highway or road extension projects?” he wrote.
Consumers Association of Penang president S.M. Mohamed Idris said that developers should only cut down trees if it conformed to rules in the Town and Country Planning Act.
“If the council is contravening the law, then others can also act with impunity,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Malaysian Nature Society adviser for Penang, Kanda Kumar called for harsher action against the developer.
“If the developer was acting on its own, it should be taken to court, as a deterrent to others,” he said. – March 14, 2016.
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