KEPALA BATAS: The nod given by the cabinet for the elevation of the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) to city council is one which comes with challenges.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said he believed taxpayers’ expectations of MPSP would be greater with the city status.
“Of course, the taxpayers will expect more, now that they are living in a city. And it is incumbent upon the soon-to-be-created city council to improve on its services as well as projects and services delivery in line with the aspirations and hopes of the people,” he said after presenting Hari Raya hampers to Muslims here and in the surrounding areas.
Chow thanked the federal government for approving the application, which was submitted last year.
With the latest development, Penang now has two city councils, the other being the Penang Island City Council, which was approved in 2015.
Chow said with Seberang Perai being elevated to city status, expenditures were expected to increase in order to fulfil the people’s aspirations and hopes.
“Of course the council coffers will not be sufficient to fund everything. The state will come in to help when needed.
“We also hope the federal government, through the various ministries, will also approve economic, social and community projects for the council to ensure its infrastructures are in line with that of a city,” he said.
Yesterday, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said that the cabinet had approved city status for Seberang Perai.
She said that the approval was given last week and that it would take about two weeks for the documentation process to be completed.
The Penang government had applied for city status last December.
MPSP is the largest municipality in the country, administering three main districts with 54 localities.
With the elevation, Seberang Prai will become the country’s largest city council, covering 747.8 sq km with a population of 946,200.
Seberang Perai, originally known as Province Wellesley, borders Kedah and Perak.
It was originally a part of Kedah but was ceded to the British East India Company towards the end of the 18th century.
The company acquired it to provide more agricultural land and as a defensive bulwark against any cross-strait invasion from the mainland. It was named after a British officer.
Since then, it has become part of Penang, which was made a British colony in 1867.
Seberang Prai was also part of the Bujang Valley civilisation.
The Cherok Tok Kun megalith in Bukit Mertajam, discovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions, implying that an early Hindu-Buddhist political entity in what is now Kedah had established control over parts of Seberang Perai sometime between the 5th and 6th centuries.