‘Devt committee facilitates strategic economic plan’

Selangau MP Edwin Banta highlights the prime role of a village’s development committee in assessing community’s needs, as well as in exploring the sustainable potential of land resources for development.

Edwin said this at the launching of the Oya-Pakoh Development Committee at Rumah Rama in Rantau Dangih, near Batang Oya here on Saturday.

He remarked that such development committees had also been set up in other areas in his constituency, namely Siong, Pasai and Sekuau to facilitate and support the government’s key task in developing the areas and its community.

Adding on, he said each development committee would be allocated with an annual grant of RM10,000 to fund their programmes and activities.

Edwin, who was recently appointed as a board member of Yayasan Pendidikan Teknikal Rakyat Sarawak (Teras), also called on his constituents to apply for the foundation’s scholarships.

“As of today, more than RM150,000 in education incentives have been distributed to the children from this parliamentary constituency,” he said.

The financial assistance, he said, was given on a one-off basis, to which student recipients at the diploma level would each receive RM800; while the bachelor’s degree and the master’s degree students would get RM1,200 and RM1,500 each, respectively.

At the event, Edwin presented Minor Rural Project (MRP) grants totalling RM175,000 in the form of cheques to 11 longhouse, village security and development committees (JKKKs); a ParentTeacher Association; as well as educational incentives to two students who were pursuing their tertiary education.

Oya-Pakoh Development Committee chairman Penghulu Bansa Kunchau, meanwhile, lauded the setting-up of the committee which he deemed as beneficial in elevating the community’ socioeconomic status.

“The land area in Ulu Pakoh and Ulu Oya which has been gazetted by the government is large enough and is suitable for development by the government or the private sector,” said Bansa, while calling for the state government to reintroduce the oil palm plantation scheme to rural communities.

This scheme, he said, had benefitted the rural households who earned income from oil palm cultivation.

“The younger generations also play a role in this development plan, and it will be good if they can develop the land, rather than leaving it idle,” he said.