Lau says the people are forced to rely on induction cookers, causing electricity bills at home to soar.
THERE is an acute shortage of cylinder gas in Sarawak, says a local elected representative.
Lanang MP Alice Lau urged the state government to address the matter urgently.
“The Sarawak government should not adopt an ‘ostrich mentality’ towards the problem.”
She said that almost every household needed gas for their cooking, and solving this problem should be a top priority and cannot be delayed.
“Every day, I receive calls or messages from people in Sibu asking me where they can replace the yellow gas cylinders with red ones,” said Lau.
“This shows that the problem, which started in December last year, has been dragging on to this day and it has not yet been properly resolved by the Sarawak government,” she added.
At the end of last year, the state government moved to allow only Petros Niaga Sdn Bhd to distribute liquefied petroleum gas.
The company uses red gas cylinders.
The state government had at the same time stopped renewing the business licence of Mygaz, which supplied gas in yellow cylinders.
Lau said that because of the shortage, people were forced to rely on induction cookers for cooking, which caused household electricity bills to soar.
She added that from Feb 2 to 8, there were two service hotline numbers for people to call and make inquiries to replace or refill their red gas cylinders.
Lau said this, however, was only an emergency measure and was not a permanent solution.
“The Sarawak government must immediately add more red cylinders to fill the shortage in the market,” she said.
She also noted that there were cases of distributors refusing to accept the yellow cylinders.
