Cheery exchange: Nga and Akmal speaking with traders at Laman Tasik Pandan Anjung Singgah food court in Johor Baru.
JOHOR BARU: The state has received a total of RM23.1mil allocation from the Local Government Development Ministry to carry out over 60 projects for public facilities in 16 local councils, which are to be completed by the year end.
Its minister Nga Kor Ming said this included RM8.5mil allocated to maintain the 28 flood retention ponds in the state in an effort to reduce flash floods.
“Ten of the ponds are in Muar, six in Kota Tinggi, four in Mersing, two in Batu Pahat, two in Kulai and one each at Johor Baru, Iskandar Puteri, Segamat and Pengerang,” he said.
Another RM1.3mil was also set aside to maintain and upgrade the Laman Tasik Pandan Anjung Singgah and Gerai Jalan Biru in Johor Baru.
“We have already channelled RM800,000 to upgrade the Laman Tasik Pandan Anjung Singgah and another RM500,000 to upgrade 14 stalls at Gerai Jalan Biru,” he told reporters after visiting Laman Tasik Panjang Anjung Singgah here yesterday.
Also present were his deputy Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir and Johor housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor.
The ministry, Nga added, had also approved another RM13.3mil for all 16 local councils in Johor to carry out 35 projects involving public facilities.
“All of these projects will start as soon as possible and must be completed by this year. I hope that when I visit the state again next year, all of these projects would have been completed.
“We want the people to be able to feel the change that we are trying to bring,” he said, expressing his confidence that the local councils in Johor would be able to complete the task on time.
On another matter, Nga also encouraged state governments to offer land to the Federal Government, for free or at a nominal premium rate, for the construction of people’s housing projects (PPR).
He said the Negri Sembilan state government had offered four strategic locations while there were two sites from Johor.
“This is as of the last time that I checked on the matter, but there may be other state governments that have made similar offers as well. We have a first come, first served policy, which I feel is fair as it shows the sincerity of the state governments.
“We’ve noticed that in the past, about 30% of the allocation channelled into a PPR project was spent on just buying the land. As a result, the quality of the building may not be the best as a huge portion of the allocation has been used just to get the land.
“We welcome and encourage state governments to come out with such offers so that we can work together to build more quality PPR.
“I urge the Economic Planning Unit of all state governments to carry out their own studies and look into strategic land locations,” he said.
In March, Nga had said that the ministry would give priority to states that offered land in strategic locations for free or at a nominal premium rate to implement PPR projects.
He said the move was to enable the federal government to optimise allocations for building homes instead of having to also pay for the cost of land.
