KLANG – Selangor Menteri Besar, Amirudin Shari warns landowners who deliberately conducted open fires at a time where the state is hit with a severe haze issue.
He said the state government is currently monitoring hot-spots that are believed to be at risk for open burning by irresponsible landowners.
“We believe they conduct open fires at night and made it difficult for the authorities to make any arrests, even the landlords’ whereabouts are unknown to us,” said Amirudin.
“However, the state government will continue to take decisive action to prevent the haze from worsening,” he told the media.
Amirudin said this after opening the 2019 National Level Debate and Speech Competition at the Hotel Gocos here on 16 September.
On 13 September, the exco of Environment, Green Technology, Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and Consumer Affairs, Hee Loy Sian insisted landowners who regularly conducts open burning in Johan Setia and had resulted in an increase in the Air Pollution Index, to be called by the law and have action taken against them, including looting of the land.
Hee said the state government would work with the Land and District Offices to identify landowners as most of the land in the area is privately owned and belongs to the agricultural status.
The move was made because landowners did not try to help the state government to prevent open burning incidences.
