He said there many instances where land marked for schools were handed over to the Federal Government, but no schools were built for years.
“We are not standing in the way of building a school. Why should we hoard the land?
“Through this measure, we can ensure that the land surrendered is really used for its intended purpose of building a school.
“We have told the Federal Government and Education Ministry that they can approach us anytime to build schools.
“We will transfer the land title to the ministry immediately,” Ramasamy, who is also the Penang Deputy Chief Minister II, said when contacted.
Earlier today, state Federal Action Council Chairman Zainal Abidin Osman said the Federal Government was facing a “land scarcity problem” when it came to building schools in Penang.
He said typically, housing developers would alienate a plot of land for schools and subsequently hand it over to the Federal Land Commissioner.
Zainal said the practice, however, came to an end in 2009 after the Penang Government ordered all land alienated for schools to be handed over to the State Planning Committee (SPC) instead.
Ramasamy defended this practice, saying it was to ensure that developers handed over land for educational institutions.
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