8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-11-03 Page08 Authorities Ignored
Complaints of Soil Erosion
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Work on the luxury housingproject next to the museum startedlate
last year.
Johari said it was only in the lastfew months that the developer
hadencroached on government reserveland and started clearing
it.
When contacted, state execu-tive councillor and Batu Maung
state assemblyman Abdul MalikKassim said he had been informedof
the soil erosion a few monthsback.
I was also informed of thelandslide on Sunday and tookimmediate
action to inform thecouncil and the PWD. They arenow doing
rectification work onthe site, he said.
Abdul Malik has also asked thecouncil and the PWD to come upwith
a complete report on the soilerosion and landslide.
On Joharis claims that thedeveloper was encroaching ongovernment
reserve land, AbdulMalik said he was not aware ofthe matter.
The Penang War Museumwas opened to the public in2002. It was
built in the 1930sand was once a British military
fortress.The museum was also usedas a prisoner camp duringthe
Japanese occupation. It isopen for two sessions 9amto 6pm and 7pm
to 11pm.
by Opalyn [email protected]
GEORGE TOWN: He had beenwarning the authorities about
soilerosion in the area for months butwas ignored. Heavy rainfall
onSunday finally brought Penang WarMuseum owner Johari Shafies
fearsto life when a landslide obstructedparts of the main road
leading up tothe museum.
Johari has now lodged areport with the police and theMalaysian
Anti-CorruptionCommission (MACC) detailinghow his complaints of
soil ero-sion stemming, he said, from a
nearby hillside development,to the Penang Island
MunicipalCouncil, the land office andthe Public Works
Department(PWD) were ignored.
Johari first lodged a com-plaint about two months ago.
I reported to the authoritiesthe development as the developeris
obviously encroaching on gov-ernment reserve land by clearingthe
land and risking a landslide,but no action was taken, he said.
Johari said he felt compelled todo something to ensure that
thesafety of visitors to the museum
was not jeapordised.I had no choice but to lodge a
police report on Sunday night as itinvolved the publics safety.
I havealso this morning submitted a 15-page report on the whole
soil erosionand landslide issue together withthe police report to
the MACC forfurther investigation, he said whencontacted
yesterday.
A copy of the report was submit-ted to the Penang chief
ministers office for further action.As a result of the
landslide, the
road to the museum is currentlyinaccessible to vehicles, and
visitorshave to walk about a kilometre toreach it.
I hope the authorities will im-mediately clear up the landslide
asthe road is under their purview,Johari said.
newswithout borders8 theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 2009
BERNAMAPIX
Authorities ignored
complaintsof soil erosion
Johari points out soilerosion on a road leadingto the
museum.
Telling halal gelatine fromthe non-halalby Bernard
[email protected]
GEORGE TOWN: Universiti Sains Malaysia hasdeveloped a technique
to determine whethergelatine in medicine capsules is halal.
The technique, developed by researchersfrom the universitys
School of PharmaceuticalSciences, involves identifying the unique
proteinmarkers in soft and hard capsules to determine ifthey come
from a porcine or bovine source.
USM School of Pharmaceutical SciencesAssoc Prof Dr Gam Lay Harn
said the proteinsare extracted from the gelatine capsule and
separated using gel electrophoresis.Through this method, we can
identify if thecapsule is made out of porcine or bovine gela-tine,
she said, adding that the technique doesnot only determine the type
of gelatine, but thepercentage of it in the capsule as well.
The technique, the first of its kind, is the resultof one years
research and cost about RM300,000to develop.
LadangMidlandsSchool stays
where it isSHAH ALAM: The Ladang MidlandsTamil School will
remain at its presentlocation in Section 7 here and will notbe
relocated to the I-City as proposedby the previous state
government.
Selangor Mentri Besar Tan SriAbdul Khalid Ibrahim said
yesterdayrelocating the school to the I-City a RM2 billion
ICT-based premiercommercial development in Section7 would only
jeopardise the effortsof the developer, I-Berhad, to pull inlocal
and foreign investors.
The total land area of I-City isless than 100 acres (40.5ha) and
thedeveloper need not necessarily putup schools on the land.
The state government will notpractise discrimination
againstanyone who intends to invest inthe states property
development,
he told reporters after a monthlyassembly of Selangor
governmentdepartments.
On Saturday, Shah Alam MIC Youthleader and political bureau
chairmanM. Saravanan had said that the previ-ous state government
had allotted1ha with freehold title at the I-City tothe Tamil
school.
Saravanan, who was for the move,alleged that the opposition-led
stategovernment had sold the land to athird party, based on
informationreceived from the school administra-tion.
Selangor executive councillor DrXavier Jayakumar, however,
deniedthis and said the land allotted to theTamil school was
unsuitable as it waslocated in the midst of factories.
The school is currently located in aone-storey building.
Bernama
Teacher jailed and finedfor molesting pupilsPEKAN: A teacher was
jailed three months jailand fined RM13,000 by a magistrates
courthere yesterday for molesting two female pupilsfour years
ago.
Magistrate Emma Shahriana Ali meted outthe punishment on
Shaharudin Mat Hasan, 38,from SK Belimbing here, after finding him
guiltyof having molested the nine-year-olds in SKSri Makmurs
computer laboratory in Pekan in
August 2005.He had kissed the girls besides fondling
theirbreasts and private parts. He was arrested onOct 17, 2005,
charged on Oct 25, 2005 and wasreleased on RM6,000 bail before
being trans-ferred to SK Belimbing. Bernama
Japanese woman nabbedfor drug possession at KLIANILAI: Customs
officers arrested a Japanesewoman after they found 4.7kg of syabu
inher luggage upon her arrival at the KL Inter-national Airport
from Dubai last Friday.
KLIA Customs director Azizah Ibrahimsaid yesterday the drug was
recovered afterthe officers scanned three pieces of
luggagebelonging to the 30-year-old woman whohad flown in at aboard
an Emirates flight.
Azizah asked the people to convey infor-mation on drug smuggling
to the CustomsDepartment via the toll -free line 1-800-88-8855 or
06-7917792/7587, saying informantswould be rewarded if the
information led toarrests and seizure. Bernama
Visitors having to walk akilometer to reach the museum.
It is helpful not only to those who are con-cerned about taking
halal (products), but also toHindus and vegetarians as well, Gam
said at apress conference at USM yesterday.
She said there are other methods in the mar-ket to identify pig
DNA, including the polymerasechain reaction technique.
However, sometimes DNA can be damagedin the gelatine preparation
process or in thecapsule, which might create a false negative
orfalse positive in the process.
Gam said the university had offered its serv-ices to several
pharmaceutical companies in thecountry as well as the National
PharmaceuticalControl Bureau.
She said the method had been patented inMalaysia and that the
university was in the proc-ess of getting it patented
internationally throughthe Patent Cooperation Treaty.
The dean of the school, Assoc Prof Dr SyedAzhar Syed Sulaiman,
said the method could beextended to the food industry to tell halal
fromnon-halal food.
But we need to find a method to extract theprotein in food
first, he said.
