THE Penang government today said it will pursue its ambition to have its Seberang Prai municipal council (MPSP) on mainland Penang elevated to city council status.

Local government exco Jagdeep Singh Deo said Putrajaya has confirmed that no state is restricted from having more than one city council, contrary to what the former administration said.

The former Barisan Nasional federal government had told the Penang government, which was under opposition control from 2008 to May this year, that each state can only have one city council.

“We tried to elevate MPSP to city council status in the last term, but we could not do so because of the so-called restriction.

“It was an unacceptable excuse. We know there are other states with more than one city council,” Jagdeep said at a press conference in his Komtar office this morning.

Selangor has the Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam city councils, and Johor has the Johor Bahru and Iskandar Puteri city councils, while Sarawak has the Kuching North, Kuching South, and Miri city councils.

“In a meeting with Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin yesterday, I asked the ministry again if there was such a restriction.

“Zuraida said there was no such thing and that Penang was welcome to apply for city council status for MPSP,” Jagdeep said, adding that he would expedite the state’s effort to make MPSP a city council.

Penang has two local councils. The Penang island municipal council was elevated to city council status in 2015.

It was reported that MPSP had qualified for city council status since 2008.

The criteria fulfilled include having an annual revenue of over RM100 million and a population of over 500,000 people.

Jagdeep also said Penang will be getting more public people’s housing projects from the federal government.

“It is confirmed that two plots of land in Jelutong are being considered for development by the federal government,” he said, adding that the projects may take another two to three years.

He said the state had also identified another 21.88ha of land across all five districts in Penang for PPR projects.

Penang, among all states in the country, has the least PPR projects. It has 129 ready projects, with 70 in the works. – October 5, 2018.