SIBU, March 17: The UTC (Urban Transformation Centre) has opened today after a long period of closure due to the spike in Covid-19 cases here but the public was greeted with long queues of people.
There were many unhappy faces as people had to wait for more than five hours to get their turn to be serviced.
Bukit Assek assemblyman, Irene Chang who went to the centre upon receiving complaints said the long queue was more serious at Counter 8 which involves the renewing of trade licences.
“Those in the queue included people waiting since 8.30 am. They had no lunch and no drinks because they didn’t want to lose their place in the queue,” she said.
Chang noted that there were three reasons that caused the long queue at Counter 8.
“There was only one counter opened to serve a very large number of people. Secondly, there were runners who brought in 10 to 20 licenses for renewal. Thirdly there were those from other counters who after paying their electricity and water bills and other rates were seen cutting into the queue,” she said.
Chang who immediately called up the State Treasury Department in Kuching was assured that they would open more counters tomorrow.
She had also managed to get the manager of the UTC to have all applications processed by today.
“One counter should just handle the licenses brought in by runners as they usually have many licenses in their hands. This should shorten the waiting time for those with only 1-2 licenses,” she asserted. – DayakDaily
