ISSUES FACED BY TAMAN KAM JAI YEN RESIDENTS GETS ATTENTION

Calvin Chong (L) & Taren Sunil (2R) doing inspection at Taman Kam Jai Yen

SANDAKAN: The housing estate of Taman Kam Jai Yen received the attention of Elopura Assemblyman YB Calvin Chong and his delegation recently. 

Together with the Highway and Public Utilities Committee (HPUC), they paid a site visit to look into issues faced by the residents there. Also present were representatives from the Public Works Department and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).

“Taman Kam Jai Yen is a comparatively old housing estate comprising many blocks of walk-up apartments. Obviously, due to years of wear and tear, many of the buildings are quite dilapidated,” noted Taren Sunil Manoharan, head of HPUC who was with his fellow councilors Hanafia and Said Rasul.

Nevertheless he also revealed that some of the problems were due to negligence and non-conformity to housing rules by some of the residents.

“We discovered that there were many illegal extensions all over the place. These structures impeded maintenance and cleanup work. For this reason the walkways were filthy,” Taren Sunil lamented.

Illegal structures were built over manholes and drains making normal maintenance virtually impossible. Even some water meters were covered up by such structures.

As usual, many of the drains were blocked by thrash. A few residents were seen doing their washing on the balconies of their apartments and just letting the dirty water flow down from there.

“Needless to add, the back alleys were in a horrible mess,” said Taren Sunil.

However, despite being faced with such challenging conditions, the delegation of Chong, HPUC, JKR and DID will hold discussions on how to rectify the situation.

“We will have to study the appalling state of affairs and try to find a practical solution. We can’t have the local authorities endlessly cleaning up the mess created by some irresponsible people,” summed up Taren Sunil.However, he stressed that it was always just a few who create nuisance for the majority who are rules-abiding residents.