Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob has come under fire for claiming state authorities could not detain illegal miners as they would "run away" during raids.

Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh said the Pahang government should cease bauxite mining permanently if it is incapable of nabbing illegal miners.

"The entire state Land and Mines Office is unable to control (illegal bauxite mining) and is involved in serious corruption scandals.

"This is a clear indication that we cannot allow mining to continue even after the moratorium expires.

"The Pahang government is unable to control the mining industry before and will not be able to do so after," she told Malaysiakini .

A three-month moratorium on bauxite activities, negotiated by the federal government, was imposed effective Jan 16 following widespread pollution due to unregulated and indiscriminate mining.

A massive clean-up effort has since commenced and exporters have been instructed to relocate bauxite stockpiles away from the sea and water sources which have become polluted.

In an interview with the New Straits Times published today, Adnan said he does not have a definitive answer on dealing with illegal miners.

“When NST asks me, what are you going to do with the illegal miners, I don’t have a definite answer because based on the current laws and practices, if the illegal mining is done on private land, then we can take action using the National Land Code 1965.

“If illegal mining is done on state land, we can raid the area but, almost invariably when we raid the area, the operators will run away. Then, all we can do is seize their machinery," he said.

Adnan also appeared to point the finger at Putrajaya over the poor regulation, noting that most of the agencies responsible were under the federal government.

“I don’t want to play the blame game or be in denial, but the fact is, except for the Land and Mines Office, all the other enforcement agencies (the Minerals and Geoscience Department (JMG), Land Public Transport Commission, police and the Road Transport Department are under federal jurisdiction," he was quoted as saying.

Adnan said the state needed the police's help to arrest those behind illegal mining.

“We cannot just seize the machinery; we must try to arrest the culprits and this can be done with the help of the police. Once we arrest them, we can work up the chain.

“We need to establish a paper trail based on the information we get from questioning the suspects to establish the identities of those financing the operation,” he added.