State govt deny allegations they are secretive about Penang Transport Council (PTC) meetings

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has dismissed allegations it was being secretive about the Penang Transport Council (PTC) meetings which was formed to implement the RM27 billion Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).
State Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow (pix) said numerous public meetings, focus groups and presentations have been organised by the state and PTMP project delivery partner (PDP) SRS Consortium.
He said media updates were also hosted to reply to concerns expressed by civil organisations and local communities adding that these meetings were not required by laws and regulations but were still held.
"This is an unfair allegation," he said in a statement today in response to Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) vice chairman Khoo Salma Nasution who complained in a Facebook post that she was asked to leave a PTC meeting despite being a PTC alternate member during a Sept 2 meeting.
In his statement, Chow said the state allowed PHT and the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) to name fixed alternate members or "wakil tetap" if their nominated members could not attend.
He said the PHT named Khoo Salma as their alternate member to stand in for PHT president Lim Gaik Sian if Lim was unable to attend meetings.
Chow said the Sept 2 meeting saw both Khoo Salma and Lim present resulting in the PTC secretariat reminding the presence that the alternate member from PHT was not required.
Chow also questioned why civil organisations seemed to be fearful of SRS engineers and experts who attended PTC meetings.
"The SRS experts are not PTC members but as PDP, they are invited to answer, discuss and debate with PTC members on the various issues of concern," he said and expressed his surprise over the issue.