Penang residents who are threatened by hillslope projects within their vicinity may get a good night's sleep if pledges made by the state government recently become reality.

NONE Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state planning committee, which oversees the approval of development projects, will review all projects above 250 feet, including the 19 that are categorised under 'special status'.

Refering to the 19 projects, Lim told a recent dialogue session organised by a group of NGOs in Penang last Saturday that the review would include those previously approved by the former BN government.

Lim's remark received a round of applause from the 500-odd participants at the forum titled A Public Dialogue with the CM: A Vision for an International Liveable City.

He said this when responding to a question posed at the dialogue session by a vocal resident from Sungai Ara, whose residential area is facing a highrise development on hillslopes.

The resident challenged Lim to state his stand clearly on hill projects before the 13th general election, which is expected to be called soon.

NONE Her query was based a recent comment by former acting director of the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) Town Planning Department Khoo Boo Soon (1993-2010), who argued that planning permission for such projects could be revoked in the public interest .

However, this was refuted by MPPP president Patahiyah Ismail, who claimed that revoking such projects would result in the MPPP becoming bankrupt, should developers take legal action against the council.

Rules remain, post or pre-GE

In response to her query, Lim gave his assurance that the residents in the Sungai Ara area would be able to "sleep peacefully".

He said "rules will remain", before or after a general election, and that as far as the Sungai Ara project was concerned, the state would take whatever steps necessary to ensure that it was conducted properly.

"The state planning committee will look at it and ensure that this project will not go on as long as the present government is around. How will I do it? I have to do a lot of moral persuasion here," he said.

NONE Lim's administration and the MPPP have been criticised for approving hill projects that threaten the environment and lives of residents but it rubbished the mainstream media reports, decribing them as "false'.

The previous BN government was put in a spot when Patahiyah ( left ) revealed that it had given the nod for 37 projects, including the 19 disputed ones that have been categorised as 'special projects".

The former BN administration has refused to accept the blame and called on the state government to declassify documents on minutes of meetings related to approvals for the 19 projects.

Checklist system

Meanwhile, Lim also clarified on the procedures related to approvals of projects, saying that when the Pakatan Rakyat government took over in 2008, it struggled to "divorce approval from political interference".

He said the authorities adopted a checklist system where boxes were ticked when the developer complied with requirements or guidelines of the local government.

If boxes were not ticked but the project got a nod, the officers in-charge of the matter would have to explain.

"If all the boxes are ticked, all the conditions fulfilled and yet approval is not given, you will know for what reason," he said, hinting at the possibility of corruption.

"After implementing some of the changes, we minimised political interference as much as possible. Abuses associated with the local authority were also cut down," Lim added.