Selangor opposition chief Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo said today the state government must set up a special enforcement team to prevent sand theft if it is serious in resolving the problem.

NONE When he was the menteri besar previously, he said the 'Blue Team' comprising 40 enforcement personnel was set up to check sand thefts in the state, but the team had been disbanded by the present Selangor government, he said at a media conference in Kuala Selangor today.

He also refuted the claim by a state executive councillor, Ronnie Liu, that the Blue Team was set up when Muhammad Muhd Taib was the MB and had been disbanded when he (Dr Khir) took over.

The Blue Team was only disbanded a year ago, when the Pakatan Rakyat took over the state government, he said.

Khir also claimed that following the disbandment of the enforcement team, there was less monitoring on sand thefts at the lower level because the state government subsidiary company, Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd, only handled trading in sand and did not have the power to check sand thefts.

NONE The former MB said that if the state government was determined to prevent sand thefts, it must set up a new enforcement team managed by the Land and Mines Office.

He also said that staff of the Land and District Office must be mobilised to supervise the legitimate sand mine belonging to Kumpulan Semesta to ensure that no sand was taken out of the mine outside official working hours, that is from 5am to 7pm or from 8am to 6pm.

Khir said he feared that illegal sand mining or excessive and uncontrolled sand mining could contaminate the river and lead to a water crisis in the Klang Valley.

- Bernama