KUCHING: Chief Minister Adenan Satem tabled the 2016 State Budget which allocates 74 per cent or RM5.97 billion to development and RM2.07 billion or 26 per cent to operating expenditure about 10 days ago.
Adenan, who is also the state finance minister, said: “The development-biased budget would mainly be used to construct roads, increase coverage of clean treated water and improving agriculture.”
He said the budget is also to narrow development gap between urban and rural areas throughout the state, with higher allocation of RM2.65 billion out of the total development allocation for rural areas, compared to a RM2.35 billion allocation for 2015 and RM2.19 billion in 2014.
This is in line with the state’s commitment to have greater focus on programmes and projects for rural areas to further accelerate rural transformation as well as opening more opportunities for development to benefit our rural communities.
Somehow, this enthusiasm was not shared by certain local leaders.
Sarawak PAS Commissioner Jofri Jaraiee, in a letter, said that the Sarawak 2016 budget is more focused on the development of sustainable infrastructure, especially in rural Sarawak.
“The government will give millions of ringgit in allocations for rural infrastructure development but the major problem is that the roads built are riddled with potholes which pose many risks to its users in rural Sarawak,” he said.
Jofri, who is also Miri PAS chief, cited a complaint by Kampung Bakam resident Abdul Kamil Saimon who said that the road leading to his home was severely damaged by flash floods caused by heavy monsoon rains. The road is located in a flood-prone area close to the Bakam River near Lambir.
So far no action has been taken. The lackadaisical attitude shown by the elected representatives here are disappointing as they do not care about problems faced by the villagers.
He hopes the authorities take responsibility to resolve the problems soon.
“I am certain the millions allocated could resolve a lot of the problems faced by the people and urge the authorities to use the budget allocations wisely to improve the basic amenities.
“They are elected to deal with people’s problems. But, they only appear during election time, purportedly wanting to help the villagers in order to garner votes. I urge them to perform their duties as elected representatives, not only care for their own interest,” he said.
He urged the state government, under Adenan’s leadership, to reassess the work done by elected representatives as they have to be fair to all residents regardless of race, religion and political affiliation.
Treat all people fairly and do not interfere with the duties of the government agencies involved in providing for their welfare.
There seems to be favouritism as these reps are selective in granting funds to assist the people.
The people only hope for basic facilities and their welfare to be cared for. They do not need to be intimidated by threats which claim that they will not receive anything by certain parties if they lodged complaints with the relevant authorities.
Residents in many areas hope to see that day that the allocations will be used to help them and not repeatedly hear that only certain roads are paved with tar and others not.
We hope to see better cooperation and service from the authorities to jointly solve people’s problems without favouritism.-The Ant Daily
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