Sempurai Petrus Ngelai
SIBU: Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) will work with other councils to seek a mechanism to look into the illegal extension issue in commercial and housing areas under its jurisdiction.
SRDC chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai pointed out that while enforcement of the law is the option to deal with the issue, it does not solve the problem.
“Illegal extension is a statewide issue and we need a mechanism to ensure a viable solution.
“Enforcement of the law is the option but so far, it cannot solve the problem because of the legal procedures in the implementation of the Building By-Law, which still gives some problems for the local authorities to implement such law,” he explained yesterday.
Sempurai said they know previously some other councils’ action calling for demolition had met with some resistance from the building owners.
“The owners brought the matter to court which ruled in their favour. As for SRDC, our Public Works section will work together with other agencies such as Land and Survey Department to ensure the coordination of the effort can be strengthened,” he added.
On another matter, Sempurai noted there is a lot to be done especially on the projects allocated for this year under Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris), Capital Grant, Local Authorities projects (BP1) and Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) projects.
“To deliver all these projects in time, we need to work with (SRDC’s) Public Works section to facilitate and give all assistance.”
He noted that members of the public have higher expectation nowadays and is more advanced with better and faster mode of communication like Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, blog and other social media platforms to share information and constantly monitor the implementation of projects carried out by the council.
“Therefore, we need to be one step ahead of the people within our jurisdiction to ensure efficient and effective service delivery,” he said.