Answering questions by the Bintulu MP, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing at the current Parliamentary session, the Ministry admitted that the number of specialised medical officers in the country were still insufficient to meet the needs.

The Ministry also revealed that 102 foreign medical specialists had been engaged with 75 of them were from India, 21 Myanmar, three Singapore and one each from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt.

At the same parliamentary session, the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry had informed Tiong that the Department of Environment (DoE) had extended their open burning prevention activities through land patrol and enforcement beyond office hours.

The DOE control room had also been opened until 11pm to attend to any complaint of open burning incidents from the members of the public.

Tiong had earlier asked the Ministry on the steps that had been taken to prevent open burning committed at night time by irresponsible individuals or parties.

Several amendments had also been made on the Environmental Quality Act 1974 to prohibit open burning activities while limiting such activity to unavoidable situation.

In this connection, monetary penalty for those convicted of committing open burning had also been raised where the maximum compound imposed is RM2,000 while the fines under the Act had been raised to a maximum of RM500,000.

Apart from the fine, the amendments also provided violators who are caught to be liable to imprisonment of up to five years.