Under Section 24 (7) of the Act, those who start construction before obtaining approval will be taken to court. They will be fined a maximum of RM100,000 and jailed six months if convicted.

A RM5,000 fine per day will be imposed on them if they continued to flout the law. Council president Mohammed Khusrin Munawi said the Act had long been passed, but only Penang and Seberang Perai municipal councils implemented it.

He said councils might not have the manpower and understanding to take action now. "The problem is getting worse because developers do not feel threatened by the Acts and by-laws used now," he said.

"Under the Road, Drainage and Building Act that we are applying now, developers are fined only RM5,0000 for carrying out construction without approval. This is only a small sum for many of them," he added.

Mohammed Khusrin said the decision was made at the council's Town Planning Department meeting last week. He said the council had not used the Act on any devoloper yet, but warned the stubborn ones that action would be taken against them.

Besides the Act, the council will engage a consultant company to check on the number of buildings in the municipality that are being built without approval or did not adhere to the requirements stated in the approvals. "Harsh actions will be taken against them," said Mohammed Khusrin.

In a related discussion, a councillor urged the authority to ensure that it would build enough food courts to accommodate petty traders whose stalls were demolished under operations carried out by the council in the past few months.