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For
the High Resolution picture of Member of Parliament Dato' Seri Tiong King
Sing JP
 08/01/2008:
Tiong urges to speed up repairing Ulu Sebungan Road causes rural students
stranded at home |
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| BINTULU: BINTULU:
Bintulu Member of Parliament Dato Seri Tiong King Sing called on the Public
Works Department here to speed up repairing the stretch of road linking
to Ulu Sebungan in Sebauh, about 50 Km from here.
In a press statement yesterday, Tiong, who is also a Justice of the Peace, said the stretch of 9-KM road was so bad that school buses had refused to enter, causing the primary students to be stranded at home. He said students in 12 longhouses along the stretch were affected and this had worried the parents. Tiong has been visiting the families there regularly, and at the end of last year, he said he had brought the collective complaint of the residents to the Public Works Department here. "But, the repair of road is going so slow. About 2,000 tons of gravel is needed to level the road. Until now, the PWD has only dumped in about 600 tons." He said such an effort was insufficient to rectify the situation. Although a contractor had been called in for the repair, the parliamentary member said he did not want to see the department shifting the blame on him because the repair was being supervised by them. He hoped the department would not use lack of fund as an excuse, because if they met such a problem, they could have asked for more fund allocation. He said the condition of the earth road had been bad for the last few months, and the situation had worsened in the current rainy season. "A few sections of the road were also seriously flooded in December." He said the drivers of the school buses were now unwilling to take risk going in. Tiong was sad with such a situation because the nation had been stressing on the importance of education for rural students. "I don't want to see the BN Government blamed for such an efficiency that affects the rural students." Apart from the mud and the uneven road, Tiong said there were also too many pot holes, making the road unfit for travel. "Not only the students are affected, the residents have also found it hard to travel. They are virtually cut off." |
