PETALING JAYA: The previous Pakatan Harapan government was not involved in any durian farm, which allegedly led to the Baling floods, says Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir (pic).
The former Kedah menteri besar said the PAS-led government of the late Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak was responsible for clearing the site of the project at Gunung Inas forest reserve.
"The land clearing was done between 2008 and 2013 and I led a campaign against the PAS state government's Ladang Sejahtera project in Pedu and Gunung Inas," he was quoted as saying by online portal Malaysiakini.
"We protested against the state government encroaching into the forest reserve for agriculture projects, made worse when replanting was not done after the felling of trees.
Mukhriz was responding to an opinion piece published in PAS mouthpiece, HarakahDaily, which said Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor cleaned up the mess and halted the durian farm project in July 2020.
The project, especially the planting of musang king durian, is widely believed to be the cause of the unprecedented floods, with three people dead and thousands displaced.
However, the state has denied any links between the floods and the project, a view echoed by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan.
