According to state executive committee member Ng Sze Han, the operators were monitoring the authorities with the help of “tontos”, thus making it difficult for any action to be taken, Bernama reported.

He said these “acts of gangsterism” and physical obstacles that had been put in place prevented the authorities from stopping the illegal activity.

Ng added that another factor was that the existing by-laws only covered garbage disposal trucks and did not include operators of the illegal landfills.

“There is no legal provisions that can be imposed on the operators of these illegal landfills,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Ng was responding to a question from Edry Faizal Eddy Yusof (PH-Dusun Tua) on the obstacles faced by the state government in getting rid of illegal landfills.

He said the sites used as illegal landfills were private-owned land and the presence of prayer sites in the area also made it difficult for any action to be taken.