GEORGE TOWN (June 28) : Plans to gazette Pulau Jerejak as a permanent forest reserve have been delayed as several plots of land there were previously given away on leasehold basis to private hands.

State Environment, Health, Welfare and Caring Society Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said yesterday the state was pushing to have the island, a former penal colony, gazetted as soon as possible.

"I have submitted a report on the matter to the state executive council," he said. "I will push for it to be gazetted as fast as possible."

Phee said although the Penang state assembly had approved the move to gazette the island in May 2007, it was still not done due to issues to be settled with private parties, including a resort operator and shipyard, that occupied parts of the island.

"It showed the lack of urgency of the previous state government," he said in response to Gerakan’s statement on June 25 slamming the state Forestry Department for failing to gazette Pulau Jerejak.

Gerakan’s former state executive councillor for tourism and environment, Teng Chang Yeow, said the department had told him several times between July 2007 and February 2008 that steps were being taken to ascertain the boundary of the forest to avoid overlapping as the nearby pieces of land belonging to Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and Urban Development Authority (UDA).

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said last week that the state was planning to gazette the island by the end of the year, and that the 295ha island was being planned for preservation and controlled development for eco-tourism projects.

The state currently has four forest reserves in Teluk Bahang, Relau, Bukit Panchor and Cheruk Tok Kun with a total land area of 5,139 ha.

Phee also hit out at state opposition chief Datuk Azhar Ibrahim for saying the DAP was using the state government’s senior citizens registration programme to recruit members into the party.

"I am giving him 48 hours to provide proof that we are doing this, failing which I will take action," he said.