Haze: Palani under fire for wrong priorities

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng questions the minister's priorities over the haze problem.

PETALING JAYA: Environment and Natural Resources Minister G Palanivel has come under fire from Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng who shot a salvo at the minister for having wrong priorities.

“Should have declared haze emergency yesterday and (distributed) free face masks in Johor and Malacca.Why is minister more concerned about panda house completed earlier?” Lim said via Twitter.

The DAP leader’s criticism comes as the air pollutant index (API) in Muar sky rocketed to 746 at 7am this morning.

Emergency has been declared in Muar and Ledang due to extremely high API readings.

API readings from 0 to 50 is classified as good, 51 to 100 moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy and beyond 301 is hazardous.

Yesterday Palanivel witnessed the signing ceremony of the Giant Panda Protection and Research Programme between the Malaysian government and the Malaysian Zoological Society.

A RM25 million exhibition centre will be completed by November and two pandas will be transported from China.

The minister also announced that he would be meeting his Indonesian counterpart this Wednesday to discuss about solutions to overcome the haze problem.

Palanivel first came under fire when DAP veteran and Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang accused him of sleeping on the job yesterday.

“I am both impressed and dejected – impressed by the professionalism of the Singapore National Environment Agency (NEA) in recording and posting on its website the hourly Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) to provide accurate and timely information about air pollution levels in the island republic.

“Dejected by the contrasting failure and lack of professionalism of the Malaysian Department of Environment (DOE) to provide prompt readings on its website of the Air Pollutant Index (API) from its 52 Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS) locations in the country, although the API readings are only provided thrice a day at 7am, 11 am and 5 pm,” Lim said, via his blog.