BUTTERWORTH: The Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) has called on pig farmers in Valdor near Nibong Tebal not to burn pig carcasses as the area is too close to houses.

Council president Datuk Rozali Mohamad said it has been brought to his attention that pig farmers there did that on Aug 13.

“Although the pig farmers in Valdor have been operating for more than 30 years, they must understand that the residents have been living there for more than 100 years.

“The pig farmers were taking the easy way out instead of burying the carcasses.

“Sometimes, they even burn more than one carcass,” he said after launching a cleanliness campaign at Pasar MPSP in Taman Berjaya, Nibong Tebal, on Friday.

Rozali reminded the pig farmers to convert their open farms to closed farming.

“They do not have to submit a planning permission. They only need to submit a building plan before the end of this year.If they are going to wait till 2019, then they have to go through the normal process of submitting the planning permission and building plans,” he said, adding enforcement would take place from Jan 1, 2020.

“If they fail to upgrade their farms by then, strict enforcement action will be taken against them under the Penang Pig Farming Enact-ment 2016.”

Rozali said he was disappointed that until January this year, the MPSP had not received a single application for conversion.