GEORGE TOWN: An independent MP has proposed that a golf course which sits on a state-owned land in Bukit Jambul here should be relocated so that the land can be used for a housing project.

Bayan Baru MP Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohd Hashim said such a move would benefit some 5,000 poverty-stricken people living across the golf course in Kampung Sungai Nibong Kecil.

“It is ironic that these people have to live in poor conditions while across the road, there is a golf course serving only the purpose of some 2,000 golfers.

“The state government should do something about this. We need more houses for the poor. I have been proposing this when I was with PKR but it was shot down,” he said yesterday.

Zahrain told reporters after presenting RM9,000 to families who lost their homes to a fire which destroyed seven houses in Kampung Sungai Nibong Kechil here on Wednesday.

The golf course which is being referred to is the Bukit Jambul Country Club (BJCC) operated by Island Golf Properties Bhd (IGP) and owned by Penang Development Corporation (PDC).

SOURCE: The Star