By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 27: Bintulu MP Dato Seri Tiong King Sing has strongly criticised the Bintulu Welfare Department for its failure to provide aid to villagers in Kampung Pandan, Sebauh, following a devastating storm on April 24.
The department must stop making “silly excuses” for not providing aid to disaster areas, Tiong said in a statement yesterday (April 27).
“They are using excuses such as ‘it’s too late’ and ‘there are no boats’ to justify not attending to the disaster-hit area quickly. This does nothing for the victims who were left to fend for themselves and desperately needed aid and supplies,” he said.
Tiong said the department should also immediately inform his constituency service center of their difficulties to perform its disaster relief duties so that his team can attend to the victims as soon as possible.
According to him, at night on the same day, his team rushed to the disaster area and discovered that the victims were isolated,and unable to get food due to local shops being closed.
“If there were no boats, the Welfare Department must perform its duty to find the necessary resources to perform its disaster management roles. Why couldn’t the department use the Malaysian Civil Defense Force (APM) boats?” he asked.
On April 24, two school buildings at SK Pandan Sebauh had their roofs torn off by strong winds and thunderstorms, which also damaged several homes in Kampung Pandan. — DayakDaily
