The Penang government has invited members of Penang Forum, a group of NGOs concerned with the environment, to visit the infamous 'Botak Hill' (or Bukit Relau), to witness the ongoing mitigation and restoration works carried out by the local council.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said his administration has nothing to hide and welcomed the NGOs to visit the hill so that they can provide their advice or feedback to the company, appointed by the Penang Island City Council (MBPP), to carry out the mitigation and restoration works.

He also assured that no development plans have been approved for the hill even though the site had been re-zoned for residential homes in 2012 by his administration.

“We have nothing to hide. State executive councillor in charge of this, Chow Kon Yeow, is already planning a trip up there, in a week or two,” Lim ( photo ) said at a dialogue held with Penang Forum in Komtar on Monday.

Lim’s invitation came after the NGOs said they were not convinced that mitigation and restoration works on the hill were being carried out properly, as a bigger patch of 'baldness' have appeared on the hill, which is an eye-sore, as it is directly visible to those travelling on the Penang bridge to the island.

Illegal clearing on the hill by developer and landowner General Accomplishment in 2012 led to the company being slapped with a RM50,000 court fine but the NGOs insisted, to which Lim concurred, that the amount was not even a slap on the wrist for the errant developer.

But since conviction involved federal laws, Lim urged the NGOs to take the matter up with the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

During the three-hour dialogue, Aliran treasurer Anil Netto, also a prominent blogger, questioned why roads were built on the hill to carry out mitigation works.

“How was it that the hills were cleared without any roads then? Can the state categorically say that there will be no more approvals (to develop the site) for the culprit who had illegally cleared the land?

“If roads are built to help restoration of the hill, it seems to be making it worse instead of better,” he said.

To prove their point, scientist Kam Suan Pheng showed alarming Google earth footages and images shot by drones, some provided by resident associations affected by flood or hill degradation.

MBPP councillor Lim Mah Hui complained that his request to visit the hill received no response, since the site was illegally cleared three years ago.

Mah Hui expressed shock that the small patch of baldness has grown quite massively, and asked: “Is this what you call mitigation?"

Heritage consultant Loh-Lim Lin Lee said the authorities did not act against the illegal clearing until it became an issue.

“We are very distressed at what is happening, as there is now a bigger spot emerging on the hill; building roads up there is an open invitation to the developer to continue with his development plans as no developer would spend money to build those costly roads,” she said.

“If the developers tell you they are doing mitigation work on the hill, we cannot accept it,” she added.

Council put in much effort

MBPP engineering department deputy director A Rajan said the council has put in much effort to “mitigate” the illegal clearing on Bukit Relau.

He added that experts were called in by the council to carry out mitigation plans “safely and properly”.

He claimed that over 60 percent of mitigation works have been successfully completed.

“Without roads, vehicles travelling up and down the hill to carry out mitigation work will slide down, even on a normal day when there is no rain.

“Roads were built to allow heavy machinery to travel up the hill for work,” Rajan clarified.

He said detention points were set up to ensure that mud does not flow downwards and the company carrying out mitigation work had also planted greeneries to stop erosion from happening.

“First of all, we have to ensure that workers carrying out the work are safe; we do not want a misstep to occur which would make the state government liable.

“We monitor the situation every day to ensure that the work is carried out professionally, and we have experts to visit the sites for additional measures,” Rajan said.