By Karen Bong
KUCHING, May 9: The Sarawak government and the federal Ministry of Rural Development have agreed to maintain the Village Development and Security Committees (JKKKs) in Sarawak, where all matters pertaining to its appointment and administration is under state jurisdiction.
After Pakatan Harapan (PH) came into power, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas informed that the JKKK had been restructured and rebranded as Village Community Management Council (MPKK) since June 2018.
“However, both the federal and state governments had a discussion and reached an agreement to maintain the JKKK in Sarawak,” he said in his winding-up speech for the Ministry of Agriculture Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development.
During the meeting with the federal government, Uggah learned that the allowance of the MPKK chairperson was reduced to RM500 per month, but the state government made the decision to maintain the monthly allowance of RM900 for Ketua Kaum (KK) as chairperson of JKKK, representing an increase of RM400 per month.
“Regarding MPKK’s grant allocation for small scale development, the maximum grant is limited to RM10,000 per year for each village.
“As such, the maximum amount of overall allocation for Sarawak is RM59,760,000 and not RM100 million as claimed by Krian assemblyman (Ali Biju),” he said.
Uggah also revealed that the population size of each village and longhouse varied, where they range from villages with 20 houses and longhouses with 20 doors to those with hundred over doors such as Long Bemang in Miri with 250-door while Kampung Beladin in Betong has 977 houses.
“Hence, the amount of grant allocated in fact was insufficient. As such, the state government needed to study the proposal of implementation considering the procedure needed to be suited with local needs.
“Also, the state government will provide development allocation to villages and longhouses according to their needs from time to time,” he added.
In responding to Batu Danau assemblyman Paulus Palu Gumbang, Uggah said the state government would consider increasing the number of KK according to applications and justifications received by Resident and District Offices.
In responding to Pelawan assemblyman David Wong, he informed that community leaders could attend any programme and function as long as they were official ministerial functions in the state and officiated by a minister or deputy minister. — DayakDaily
