Oil palm planters complain about damaged road to their plantations
TAWAU: Oil palm planters at Andrassy and Sin Onn Tiku are worried their fruits will be lost due to the bad road condition leading to their plantations caused by rain.
The planters are pleading for the relevant authorities to repair the damaged road as the harvested palm oil fruit will not reach their intended buyer in time.
A planter at Sin Onn, Chin Teck Lim said planters trucks using the road risked their trucks being overturned due to the poor road condition.
Another planter, Yong Sin Choi said the link road was maintained by a government agency and the road was damaged about two months ago and was never addressed.
Information obtained that the road near the damaged road, going to the plantation owned by a family member of the district's parliamentarian was repaired.
Both planters said they were saddened by the failure of their local representatives to address the matter.
A community leader, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the planters plight should be noted and action taken as palm oil contributes taxes to the government.
He said the constant rain was the main cause of the damage but it should not be an excuse to delay repair works.
Meanwhile, the damaged Andrassy road involving the construction of the geothermal power plant also hampered planters in the area from bringing out their palm oil fruits as the road was supposed to be maintained by a plant developer but there seemed to be no activity and the road was left unrepaired.
The local leader said the reason for the government agency being unable to repair the road was because it was privately owned but stressed that as the planters in the area were effected the government should step-in to help.
He urged for the government elected representatives to visit both areas and address the matter without delay.