GEORGE TOWN: Authorities have stopped the proposed shrimp farming project in Kampung Kuala Juru as due to the lack of planning permission.
State Agrotechnology & Food Security and Cooperative Development Fahmi Zainol said he had been informed that the proposed project, which is supposed to sit on Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority (LKIM) land, had been stopped.
Fishermen there had objected to the proposed shrimp farming project, which they claimed would be developed on land earmarked for their housing project which was promised to them more than two decades ago.
"I have asked LKIM to step forward to harmonise the situation.
"We will arrange a meeting with all parties concerned, including the fishermen.
"For now, the proposed shrimp farming project has been stopped as it did not have planning permission," he told newsmen in Komtar here today.
It was reported that fishermen from Kampung Kuala Juru had objected to a proposed shrimp farming project, on a site where a housing project was to be implemented for them.
They claimed the LKIM had promised them a house for the past 25 years.
Kampung Kuala Juru residents' action committee chairman Wahid Othman said it had been more than two decades since the promised housing project but nothing has been forthcoming.
He said they were surprised by the encroachment of an unknown company on nearly 11 hectares of land to clear the site for the proposed shrimp farming project.