Penang to proceed with judicial review of Appeal Board’s decision on PSI’s EIA

Published by New Straits Times• 16/09/2021• 01:23 pm

State Infrastructure and Transportation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the state executive council (Exco), which met yesterday, agreed to proceed with legal action. – File pic.

GEORGE TOWN: The state is adamant to file a judicial review against the Appeal Board’s decision to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval of the controversial Penang South Island (PSI) reclamation project earlier this month.

State Infrastructure and Transportation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said the state executive council (Exco), which met yesterday, agreed to proceed with legal action.

“The state Exco has agreed to file a judicial review against the Appeal Board’s decision.

“At the same time, the state will begin the process of resubmitting the EIA report to the Department of Environment (DoE) so the critical project for the recovery of the state’s economy post-Covid-19 can continue as planned,” he said today.

On Sept 8, the New Straits Times reported that fisher folk, likely to be affected by the PSI reclamation project, scored a major victory after they won an appeal to revoke the EIA approval of the controversial project.

The PSI project was previously known as the Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project.

This came after the preliminary objection by Zakaria Ismail, head of the fishermen’s unit of Sungai Batu, was allowed and approval by the Department of Environment (DoE) on the PSR’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) was set aside.

The EIA was found to be ultra vires, null and void of Section 34A(4)(a) of the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) 1974.

After studying the decision by the Appeal Board, Zairil said what resulted in the cancellation of the EIA for the project was merely the non-compliance of the planning process and not on substantive matters or merits of the case.

“According to the written decision by the Appeal Board, it was found that the EIA did not fulfil requirements under Section 34A(4)(a) of the EQA as the Penang State Structural Plan 2030 (RSN2030) was considered not in effect when the EIA approval was given.

“We disagreed with the Appeal Board’s decision and are of the view that all the planning processes and necessary approvals have been obtained.

“This included the RSN2030 by the state authority through the state Planning Committee (SPC) on March 14, 2019 as well as the presentation to the National Physical Planning Council (NPPC) on April 18, 2019.

“The compliance of both is considered to fulfil requirements under Section 34A(4)(a) of the EQA which states ‘development plan or physical plan approved by the relevant approving authority’.

“As such, the approval by the DoE director-general on June 15, 2019 did not at all contravene requirements of the act,” he added.