GEORGE TOWN, Jan 16 — A total of 1.4 tonnes of garbage was removed from a two-storey terrace house here because it caused a nuisance to the surrounding residents at large.

The action was taken through an integrated operation carried out by the Penang City Council (MBPP) together with the North-east District health office and police yesterday.

The council said in a statement that it required three lorries to transport the hoarded piles of degraded items after the owner deliberately left his residential home in an overgrown and cluttered state.

"A Notice Requiring Nuisance Removal to the owner of the premises was issued on December 29 last year in accordance with Section 82 of the Local Government Act 1976 of the Penang City Council, but no action was taken by the owner to clean up all the garbage cited,” according to the statement.

At the time, the MBPP said North-east District health office officials, who were also carrying out inspection operations for potential mosquito breeding containers, found a large number of larvae breeding in buckets.

Accordingly, appropriate enforcement action is being considered against the owner of the residence for failing to comply with the Notice under Section 8 of the Destruction of Disease-Bearing Insects Act 1975 twice, resulting in his premises becoming a breeding ground for larvae that can lead to the spread of the dengue epidemic. — Bernama