SELANGOR Tourism and Environment Exco member Hee Loy Sian (pic) has refuted claims that the Bukit Lagong quarry operations have affected the Orang Asli community in the area.
He said in a statement that there is no Orang Asli community living in the Bukit Lagong Forest area.
“The nearest Orang Asli settlement is about 3km away from the quarry and is 9km away from another newly-approved quarry location,” he said.
Hee also denied that there are any difficulties in issuing an operation licence to companies.
“The Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve was classified as a production forest since the forest was gazetted as a permanent forest reserve in 1917. Right now, there are eight quarries in operation in the Selangor permanent forest reserve,” added Hee.
He then said that the quarries had been given a 30-year operational period starting in 1993 and ending in 2023, and that the Selangor Forestry Department (JPNS) had received 44 applications for quarry operations from 2014 to 2016, with 16 applications being approved.
“The 16 companies are selected based on various criteria such as company background, economic management, knowledge in operation of a quarry, environmental issues, safety measures as well as recovery efforts,” added Hee.
He said the screening process was done from Aug 22 to Aug 25, 2016.
“The state exco members take into consideration the JPNS proposals before issuing approvals to these companies to operate in these eight quarries from 2020 to 2023.
“However, due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the period of operations was postponed and will now run from 2023 to 2026,” he said.
