SIBU: The Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) and the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) appear to be at odds over the reopening of several ‘tamu’ (fresh and jungle produce market) in the Sibu division.
While SDRC chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai is in favour of reopening, as he is concerned over the livelihood of rural dwellers, his counterpart in SMC, Clarence Ting, expressed concerns over the Covid-19 risks.
Sempurai said that he would hold a meeting with the council’s business and
licensing committee before making any decision to reopen the markets.
Reopening of the tamu seems crucial as rural dwellers have lost their source of income selling jungle and farm produce, fresh water fish and native craft, since the closure of the markets last month following the Covid-19 outbreak.
“I still need to consult Sibu Division Disaster Management Committee before we can open Tamu Sibujaya, Tamu Selangau and Tamu Stapang. Once I get the agreement from the committee meeting, the Selangau and Stapang markets will be reopened first,” he said when contacted by Bernama yesterday.
The Town Villa houses and flats in Sibu Jaya, under the SRDC’s purview, are currently placed under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO), and on Monday a total of 97 cases were recorded through active case detection at the flats.
Meanwhile, Ting felt that the current condition was still “quite risky” to allow such markets to reopen, and SMC would need to consider the decision by the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) either to extend or end the current Conditional
Movement Control Order (CMCO) here.
“This is a very tough question to answer as we are not only thinking about the tamu (operations) but also other types of markets such as night markets and wet markets around Sibu town as well,” he said.
Ting brought up the tamu issue raised by Sempurai with SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, in a live-stream discussion via his Facebook account, with the latter saying it would be up to the local councils to decide on market operations under their administration, but that it must be carried out by strictly adhering to the
standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Uggah, who is also the Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, said that the state Agriculture Department would also be buying products from farmers in Covid-19 red zone districts so that the farmers need not travel to towns to sell their products.
“Farmers (in the red zones) who are experiencing problems marketing their produce can contact the agriculture office in their respective division or district, to ensure that they can sell their produce and to learn how to sell them,” he added. — Bernama
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