Repairs, maintenance of police quarters must be complete by year end, says Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR: Repairs and maintenance works for police housing quarters must be completed by the end of this year, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Prime Minister said if the works were not completed, the Home Minister and the ministry's secretary-general would have to answer for it.

“I have also given way to the Home Ministry to hasten the tender process.

“The Finance Ministry has also been ordered to ease the process so subsequent procedures can be taken swiftly,” he said during his speech for the 217th Police Day celebration at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) here on Monday (March 25).

Anwar said while the police were called on to combat commercial crime, online gambling and more, their facilities remained the same as the past 20 to 30 years.

He said the allocations for repairing police and armed forces housing quarters was also among the biggest this time round.

Anwar also highlighted how the focus was on school toilets last year, adding that large amounts were spent for this purpose.

“We can talk about the quality of education and the challenges of the future, but the toilets are not well managed.

“That is why I say, we should start with the basics,” he said.

Earlier, celebrations for the 217th Police Day celebrations saw a skit reenacting the siege of the Kuala Krau Police Station by communists in 1949.

The 20-minute long skit also saw members of the crowd shedding tears due to the emotional piece.

A moment of silence was then observed in honour of police personnel who had fallen whilst on duty.