GEORGE TOWN: The lost city status of George Town was restored this month after more than 40 years following the upgrade of the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to a city council, said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He said the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong had consented to the upgrade of the MPPP to City Council (MBPP) effective Jan 1 this year.

Guan Eng said the consent was given on March 10.

“This is historical. Finally George Town is able to regain its city status,” he told a press conference at his Komtar office yesterday.

Previously, George Town was granted city status by way of a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth II on Jan 1, 1957.

However, it lost the status in 1974 when the then George Town city council was merged with the Penang rural district council to form a local government management board.

Two years later, when the Local Government Act 1976 was enforced, this board turned into the Penang Municipal Council.

In November last year, the cabinet approved the elevation of Penang’s status from a municipality to a city.

Lim said the new city council would be covering a larger area than the municipal council — from 297 sq km to 305.773 sq km.

The chief minister said the number of personnel in the city council would also increase by 388 from the current 3,576 employed by the municipal council. “There will also be four new departments set up by the city council dealing with landscaping, heritage, enforcement, and solid waste and public cleaning management,” he said.

Guan Eng also announced the first mayor of the city council, Datuk Patahiyah Ismail, who is the current MPPP president.

Patahiyah will be the first woman mayor in Penang, just as she was the first woman to be appointed council president in 2010. She will receive her appointment letter on March 31 at Seri Mutiara, the official residence of the Yang Di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas, where she will also be sworn in. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 25, 2015.