SEREMBAN: A plan to officially declare Seremban a city next January has been deferred, following delays in the completion of refurbishment works at the proposed Seremban City Council headquarters.
Revealing this, Mentri Besar Aminuddin Harun said with the delay, the town will only acquire city status towards the end of the year.
"We have also identified some other weaknesses and will have to work on these.
"And then, there are also some issues with the new positions once Seremban is officially declared a city," he told reporters after chairing the state exco meeting at Wisma Negri.
Aminuddin said some improvements also need to be made to the infrastructure and other basic amenities in the town.
The former Barisan Nasional state government had initially applied for city status in 2008, but decided to defer this upon realising that the state lacked proper infrastructure and other public amenities.
The federal government eventually approved city status in 2012, but the state government then decided to amalgamate the Seremban and Nilai municipal councils to better serve the people.
Former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan then said his administration had agreed to officially declare Seremban a city on Jan 14, 2019, in conjunction with the birthday celebration of state ruler Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir.
Asked if action will be taken against the contractor for the delay, Aminuddin said they would first be given a chance to be heard.
"We do not know what caused the delay. We will give them an opportunity to be heard before we decide what to do," he said.
On a separate matter, Aminuddin said the state exco has agreed to appoint 45-year-old Hanis Huzaira Abdul Hanan as the new Nilai Municipal Council president.
"She will become the first woman to be made a council president in Negri Sembilan once the Public Service Department endorses this," he said.
Hanis Huzaira, who was currently serving at the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry, is from Seremban.
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