Don't impose same grass cutting schedule, JKR told
SANDAKAN: President of Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC), Datuk Peter Hii Chang Lik, has requested the Public Works Department (JKR) to consider the differences in landscape between Sandakan and other towns in Peninsular Malaysia when arranging its schedule to cut grass.
He said JKR’s grass cutting schedule for towns in Sabah, particularly Sandakan, should not be the same with the schedule for JKR personnel in Peninsular Malaysia.
“In Sandakan, considering the amount of grass on the pavement and road dividers we have here, JKR should not impose the same grass cutting schedule for Peninsular Malaysia and Sandakan. We have different landscapes and Sandakan needs regular and fixed grass cutting schedules in order to maintain the cleanliness and beauty of the town.
“We ask JKR to pay attention to this matter. All we ask is to be treated fairly,” he said.
Peter said he had requested for JKR representatives to bring up this issue to those responsible for making the schedules in JKR during SMC’s full board meeting, recently.
He said he brought up the issue with JKR representatives when they informed him that JKR (headquarters) and the Finance Ministry (Malaysia) had issued a letter stating that grass cutting by JKR would be temporarily stopped for two months (November and December 2018).
Peter said SMC had been receiving a lot of complaints regarding grass that had not been cut for some time. On this, he assured the locals that he would arrange for SMC personnel to do the grass cutting work while waiting for JKR to come up with a solution to the problem.
“I hope the locals can be patient with SMC while we work on solving this problem. Meanwhile, I have arranged for SMC personnel to do the grass cutting work, so I hope the local community can give SMC some time,” he said.
Taren Sunil Manoharan, the head of the Sandakan Municipal Council’s Highway and Public Utility Section, has also urged JKR not to overlook or neglect grass cutting along road dividers and roundabouts.
He said leaving the grass uncut would block the view of motorists and could result in serious accidents.
SMC councillor Rosly Bin Aziz has taken the initiative to cut the long grass to prevent unfortunate incidents from happening at these two places.