Chief Minister issues stern warning to incompetent RES contractors

KAPIT: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem did not mince his words when he gave a warning to contractors involved in the Rural Electrification Scheme ( RES) projects.

“There are many RES projects that cannot progress due to contractors who are lackadaisical in their work. We will dismiss them and find somebody else to finish the job,” he said when officiating at the Sejiwa Senada programme held in Kapit Stadium here on Saturday.

Earlier, Adenan said he had started the first step of a programme to supply electricity to every rural home that had access to the state grid.

He said he did not want the people to only see power cables hanging across their settlements or villages but their houses were not supplied with electricity.

“Isn’t it weird to see all the electricity going to other places but not to villages or settlements near the hydroelectric dams?” he asked. On another matter, he said the DAP’s `Impian Sarawak’ projects were just for show- off.

He said the `chicken would usually crow loudly to announce it to the whole village, although it laid just one egg’.

“The turtle lays 100 eggs and yet nobody knows about it. Who is chicken and who is the turtle? DAP is the chicken. BN is the turtle,” he said.

He also reiterated that the government was able to implement more projects in rural areas with the RM1 billion allocations for its Rural Transformation Programme (RTP).

He said that he would not dare to make promises to the people if he did not have the money.

“My style is I find the money first, then I make the promise,” he said.

He also said that rural folk would have better representation in the state cabinet with the creation of 11 new state seats to add to the existing 71 seats making the total number of 82 seats.

“Of the 11 new seats, nine are rural seats,” he said.