Council shelves decision on towers

THE Petaling Jaya Munici-pal Council (MPPJ) will shelve its earlier decision requiring communication tower owners to dismantle existing unregistered transmission towers in the municipality.

Council president Datuk Emran Kadir said the state’s decision automatically overrules the council’s earlier decision.

However, he said he had not received an official letter from the state government on the matter.

“I still need to find out the details before making further comments,’’ he said.

On Wednesday, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo announced that the state government would allow tele-communication companies to keep the unregistered transmission towers because findings had not shown the towers as a cause of illness.

Dr Khir said dismantling the towers would affect the reception of mobile phone users, resulting in another set of problems.

He said the companies would be given three months to register the existing towers with the local council.

The registration is for monitoring purposes, to help the authority locate the owners if the towers cause trouble.

Companies who want to construct towers in future would be asked to share antennas to reduce the number of towers.

He added that the towers had to follow guidelines set by the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

The companies were required to send experts to explain to residents that the findings on the transmission towers had no ill effect on health.

They would also be required to provide free health examinations.

Emran said the council had proposed to the state government to exclude structures that did not follow the guidelines.

“We proposed that only those towers which follow the guidelines be allowed to stand and be registered.

“If they do not, then the structures should be dismantled.

Emran added that, for health and safety reasons, the guidelines included the distance between the towers and residential area.

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