Lim Ah Ted
KUCHING (Mar 15): Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen is not qualified to comment on any development master plans again as the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had cancelled Sarawak’s various development projects with no concern for Sarawakians, said SUPP Batu Kawah branch acting chairman Lim Ah Ted.
In a statement today, he pointed out that Chong, as the PH Sarawak chairman and former minister for 22 months, kept silent and never voiced out against these projects’ cancellation by his former PH government but instead today he is blaming that Batu Kawah does not have a development master plan.
“Kuching Flood Mitigation master plan, Batu Kawa’s Taman Desa Wira road junction widening project to ease traffic congestion, recreation parks for Batu Kawa residents – all these projects had been cancelled by the former PH government.
“DAP candidates were the Batu Kawah state elected representatives from year 2011 until 2016, and also for Stampin federal constituency since the year 2013 until today, yet DAP never proposed any development master plan for Batu Kawah and Stampin constituencies,” he said.
In fact, Lim added, DAP owes the public an explanation on why the various people-centric projects including sewerage and water supply projects were cancelled.
“Instead these cancelled projects were reinstated and implemented through Sarawak government’s funding allocation requested by Batu Kawah assemblyman Dato Sri Dr. Sim Kui Hian.
“DAP refuses to accept that the current Batu Kawah constituency’s development is far better than when held by DAP representative, this includes the improvement on the flood mitigation issue,” he said.
Lim informed that last year, Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) had conducted a comprehensive feasible study on seven flood-prone areas in Batu Kawa resulting in RM120 million funding requested from the state government by Dr Sim.
He said that the comprehensive flood mitigation project’s seven areas are Batu Kawa Road Lorong 1C and 3, Sg. Moyan, Sg. Surih, Field Force Road, Ketitir Road, RPR area and Kampung Sinar Budi Baru.
Drainage upgrading project is also in progress for Taman Desa Ilmu, he added.
Lim further questioned as to why DAP never found a solution for all these issues when they had the elected representative in Batu Kawah.
“On Batu Kawa’s congested traffic issue, besides finger pointing and ‘mouth talk only’, DAP never came out with any solution to tackle it.
“As the elected representative of Batu Kawah constituency, Dr. Sim Kui Hian always brainstorms for a solution to resolve Batu Kawa’s traffic woes.
“Dr. Sim has proposed for RM250 million funding from Sarawak government to construct a new 9.5 km route from Stephen Yong road traffic light junction to FRC Matang to ease the traffic. The project is currently under designing phase,” he said.
Earlier, attempts had been made to contact Dr Sim to comment on a news report in which Chong on Sunday had said that Batu Kawah state constituency will be one of the most closely watched seats in the next state election.
However, Dr Sim informed that “there will be appropriate response from Batu Kawah”.
Chong was also quoted as saying that DAP Sarawak will “definitely” field a candidate in the seat which he believes will be hotly contested.
In the same news, he had also said that a comprehensive development blueprint should be drafted for the Batu Kawah state constituency to better address its development needs for the next decades, including improving the road traffic network and drainage system.
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