By Nadiah Zamlus
SHAH ALAM, Feb 15 — The unlicensed factories legalisation programme initiated by the Selangor government beginning October 2019 does not include those that were found to have caused environmental pollution in the state.
State executive councillor for local government Ng Sze Han said the programme was introduced for unlicenced factories to legalise its operations and that problematic premises would not be accepted to take part in the initiative.
“As of now, the programme had ended last December after it was extended in September following the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO),” Ng told SelangorKini in response to claims by the Association of Water and Energy Research (Awer) that the programme had taken too much time that some of the premises were at risk in causing river pollution.
He said the state government had instructed the local authorities to take action against factories involved in contaminating the environment.
“Throughout the MCO period, surveillance operations on pollution activities were continuously carried out and joint-action between the local councils and other agencies, especially the Department of Environment, were carried out with focus on areas near the rivers.
“Therefore, action would be taken against such activities,” he said.
As of November 3, 2020, Ng said a total of 5,589 factories were operating without a licence in the state and 869 of the figure are located near main river source.
The highest number of unlicensed factories are under the purview of the Shah Alam City Council with a total 546 and 155 unlicensed factories under the Kajang Municipal Council.
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