The Penang DAP government has denied that it had agreed to change the Voluntary Patrolling Unit (PPS) to the community policing unit.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government had never held a meeting with the Home Ministry on the PPS issue after the unit was declared as an illegal organisation.

"I was surprised by the statement made by Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that the state government had decided to replace the PPS with the community policing.

"I was engaged in an empty talk with Ahmad Zahid where he had offered to absorb the PPS into community policing and I told the minister to prepare a working paper on the proposal so that I could table it at the Exco meeting," he told reporters when met after the Penang State Legislative Assembly sitting here Thursday.

Earlier today, Ahmad Zahid had reportedly made a statement after attending the Monthly Meeting with the Royal Malaysia Police at Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, that Lim had agreed to replace the PPS with the community policing unit.

Meanwhile, PPS chairman Phee Boon Poh, who is also the Chairman of the State Committee on the Caring Society and Environment, said the decision to merge with the community policing could only be decided through the Exco meeting.

He said the PPS had been formed by the state government through the agreement of the Exco members and all decisions on the direction of the PPS were through the Exco meeting.

"The (state) government had not made any decision on the PPS except making a judicial review after the PPS was declared as an illegal organisation," he said.