CHONG Chieng Jen (DAP-Kota Sentosa) was accused of ‘hijacking’ See Chee How’s (PKR-Batu Lintang) question-and-answer session when the latter still had the floor.
See had posed a question on the Kuching Centralised Sewerage System to the Chief Minister and Minister of Resource Planning and Environment, which was answered by Assistant Minister of Environment Datu Len Talif Salleh.
See had asked on the progress and stages of completion of Kuching Centralised Sewerage System, the number of complaints and damages to building, roads and drains received and the progress of their remedial works carried out to-date.
Coincidentally, Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi (BN-Pantai Damai) also asked about the progress of the Kuching Centralised Sewerage System. He also asked when the project would be completed and when the sewerage system would be built in Petra Jaya area.
Len, in response to See and Abdul Rahman’s question said the progress of the project had reached 93 per cent and was still according to schedule.
“The sewerage water treatment plant had been completed on Jan 14, 2012 and has been in operation since July 1 last year. The 6.4km sewer network component has achieved 97 per cent while the property connections involving 2,833 properties will be completed on Jan 21, 2015.”
He said a total of 397 complaints on property damage had been received as of April 18, and from the number, 221 damages had been repaired.
“A total of 210 road and trench damage complaints were also received during the same period. Of the number, 187 complaints have been solved. The Sewerage Services Department is taking appropriate action on the remaining of complaints.”
In Petra Jaya area, Len said the proposed centralised sewerage system project would be implemented under the second package of Kuching Centralised Sewerage System. The proposal would be submitted to the federal government for allocations.
Before See could follow up with a supplementary question, Chong stood up to ask whether the ministry-in-charge had any guideline to direct contractors to conduct remedial works within a certain time frame and whether any penalty would be imposed on contractors for not taking care of complaints from the public promptly.
Len responded by saying: “You (Chong) managed to hijack the question from your partner in PKR. You like to hijack everything,” Len said before answering the state opposition leader.
To this, Chong replied that it was not an issue because they were all from the opposition front.
Len, in response to Chong’s question, said surely there were guidelines for the contractors to conduct repair on the damages, especially damages to trenches and roads. He said as soon as the project was completed, the roads would be repaired accordingly.
Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar then asked Dr Abdul Rahman to ask his supplementary question in which the latter asked whether the sewerage treatment plant in Petra Jaya was safe and the cost
of construction for the first package of the project.
Len said the quality of discharge from the plant would be higher than water in the river and the cost of the first package was RM529 million.
See’s attempt to ask supplementary question was disallowed by the Speaker saying the former had ‘given his right’ to ask supplementary question to Chong.