SIBU, Feb 22: Lanang MP Alice Lau is calling on the Sarawak government not to adopt an “ostrich mentality” towards the problem faced by the public in exchanging yellow gas cylinders for red ones.
She said today that as cooking gas is a life necessity in almost every household, solving this problem should be a top priority and cannot be delayed.
“Every day I am still receiving calls from people in Sibu asking questions, or sending messages to complain to me, and ask where to replace the red barrel gas. This situation means that this problem which started in December last year has been dragging on intermittently til this day, and it has not yet been completely and properly resolved by the Sarawak government,” she said.
Lau added that people are complaining that as they have nowhere to exchange yellow gas cylinders with red ones, they are forced to rely on induction cookers for cooking.
This has also directly caused household electricity bills to soar, adding another burden to living expenses every month.
She said that from Feb 2 to 8, on the eve of the Spring Festival, there were two service hotline numbers for people to call and make inquiries to replace or refill their red gas cylinders.
However, this is only an emergency measure at the moment and is not a permanent solution.
“The Sarawak government must admit the existence of this problem and must immediately add more new red barrels to fill the shortage in the market,” she said.
“If the relevant authorities just call on the public to call the hotline to complain when faced with the problem of not being able to replace the “red barrels”, it is tantamount to kicking the “ball” to the distributors. The distributors have to refuse to accept the yellow barrels because there are not enough red barrels. However, from a business perspective, we cannot blame them for this,” said Lau.
On the contrary, she stressed, the Sarawak government and PetrosNIAGA Sdn Bhd have the absolute responsibility to provide sufficient supply of red gas cylinders to solve the problem once and for all to reassure the people. — DayakDaily
