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Developers to pay for damage to environment |
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Written by Patrick
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 Developers found to have caused damage to the environment will be required to pay compensation to the affected parties.
Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Ong Ka Ting said developers
would also have to replant trees, clean up affected water retention
ponds and rehabilitate the affected areas to their original condition.
"This was decided by the Cabinet during its weekly meeting
yesterday. However, we have yet to decide on the compensation amount,"
he said after attending his ministry's Chinese New Year celebrations.
Ong said this in response to a report last Saturday that 800ha of
the Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam park in Shah Alam was becoming an "island"
as its surrounding areas were being developed for housing.
It also reported that 1,200ha at the northern border of the world's
biggest agro-forest park was facing massive ecological damage as it was
being cleared to develop Section U10.
The daily also claimed that the land had been divided among 39 developers. Most of them were building luxury bungalows. .
On Monday, immediate stopwork order was issued to all the
developers. Of the total, 14 had started development work prior to
obtaining approval, and nine others were only given planning approval
but had started felling trees and flattening hills.
Ong said the Cabinet's decision took effect immediately and
included developers who had obtained prior approvals from the local
authorities to start work.
However, he said action would only be taken "if there were proof" of ecological damage by the developers.
He said such incidents had proved that enforcement by local authorities had to be increased.
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