TTF: The police report lodged by MBPP was a ploy to brush over the state’s negligence. Neither did MBPP engineers properly assess risk factors involved prior to the approval of the project, advice the state appropriately on its findings (if any), nor did the council establish a committee to investigate what is now considered to be involuntary manslaughter. Below is a Bernama report on what Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow had to say on the matter.
GEORGE TOWN: Penang Barisan Nasional today questioned the DAP-led state government’s failure to set up a technical committee at the site of a landslide which claimed 11 lives in Lengkok Lembah Permai, Tanjung Bungah here on Saturday.
Penang Barisan Nasional chairman Teng Chang Yeow said the Penang City Council (MBPP) had instead instructed its chief architect to lodge a police report on possible negligence in management and operations at the construction site, without even conducting preliminary checks.
He claimed that the state government’s attitude was simply to escape from responsibility and accountability on the landslide tragedy.
“What is shocking is that the observation by a single chief architect at the scene (after the tragedy) was used as a basis for lodging a police report. Why did MBPP fail to set up a technical committee to investigate the landslide tragedy?,” he said in a statement here, today.
According to him, there was no need to lodge a police report on the possibility of negligence, as the police were not the agency responsible for determining such a claim, and that the state government would already be setting up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the case.
A total of 11 workers comprising one local, four Bangladeshis, two Indonesians, three Myanmar nationals and one Pakistani perished in the 8.57 am incident while they were working at the construction site.
Source: Bernama
