GEORGE TOWN, June 21 — Penang has denied clearing any permanent forest reserves in the state between 2006 and 2015, following accusation by Penang MCA state liaison chairman Datuk Tan Teik Cheng.

Furnishing figures from the Forestry Department as proof, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng refuted claims by Tan that the Pakatan Harapan state government had "destroyed the state’s lush green lung”.

"As you can see from the statistics, Penang did not clear any permanent forest reserve as compared to 161,379ha forest reserves cleared in Pahang, 157,919ha cleared in Kelantan and 74,032ha cleared in Perak,” Lim said in a press conference at his office today.

He was responding to a statement by Tan who alleged that more green hills have been turned bald as a result of over-development.

The Penang MCA man had also quoted DAP veteran Dr Tan Seng Giaw’s recent Facebook posting lamenting the rapid decline of greenery in Balik Pulau.

When it was pointed out to Lim that Seng Giaw was the one to have raised this issue, Lim said he will "deal with him internally”.

"We want to give an explanation against what MCA said that it is not true, we have not cleared any permanent forest reserves,” he said.

He pointed at an ongoing RM300 million Paya Terubong Paired Road project that cuts through the hills and yet none of the forest reserves were touched in the project.

As for what Seng Giaw had posted in his Facebook, Lim said the Kepong MP did not contact him or talk to him before he posted about the issue.

Lim also said he had been unable to contact Seng Giaw since early this year.

"He has been incommunicado since early this year,” he said.

But when contacted, Seng Giaw immediately answered the call by Malay Mail Online.

He replied Lim’s remarks by pointing out that he had answered the call to his personal mobile phone, proving that he was, in fact, had not been "incommunicado”.

As for his Facebook posting, he explained that he was only making an observation of what he saw when he was recently in Penang.

"I came to Penang with a large group and we toured Penang on a tour bus and we can see the changing coastlines and the greenery being replaced by development, especially in Balik Pulau and we see rubbish being dumped into the sea,” he said.

He said there are now more developments in Balik Pulau and the changes around the island is obvious.

"The population needs housing and development but the priority is also to preserve the forest so what we should have is environmentally friendly development,” he said.

He said the emphasis should be on environmentally friendly development, not only in Penang, but in the whole of Malaysia.