KUCHING, Feb 13: A local leader has urged the men in blue to increase patrols and their presence during the coming festive season to prevent crime.
PKR Women national vice-president Voon Shiak Ni said that burglaries and petty theft often happened during festive breaks and urged all to be watchful.
“We don’t want to come back to news of break-in. We seek the police’s attention to increase their presence in all residential areas and those who ‘balik kampung’ can also register with the authority for extra attention,” she told reporters today.
Meanwhile, on the recent flash floods caused by heavy rain throughout the state, Voon urged the relevant authority to reveal details of the flood mitigation projects.
“There has been so much news on the announcement of allocation, but how many of the flood mitigation projects are done or have been carried out, or have the funds been fully released?”
Quoting the example of Miri, she said many of the flooded areas have flood relief projects which were supposed to be completed in 2016 as announced by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, like Eco Park, Taman Tunku and Kampung Luak.
A total of RM30 million was allocated for Miri in the 11th Malaysia Plan for flood mitigation projects and an additional sum of over RM2 million was approved in 2017 for Miri for small flood mitigation project in and around Miri city.
However, these areas were still badly hit by flash floods last week.
Voon said the public was not convinced nor amused with the announcements of projects but wanted to see work done and problems solved.
Describing flashfloods as a “menace and a serious concern in many parts of Sarawak”, Voon stressed that this needs to be reviewed as a priority issue to be addressed in the state’s planning and budget as flashfloods cause losses and damages and drained the resources of the state.
“All the (flood mitigation) projects must come with transparency and accountability and one way is to update the public on what has been done and to what extent the problem has been solved,” she added. — DayakDaily
