KUCHING: The new Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) building will facilitate a town hall council whereby Kuchingites can address their issues to the mayor.
“If the community have issues, they wish to present to the mayor, they can do so as in our new building at Jalan Depo which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
“We do have an area to facilitate town hall sessions whereby the community can come and present their cases to the mayor,” its mayor Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
Responding to a recent social media post on Kuchingites’ disagreement with MetroMall in Metrocity, he stated that it is not fair for these people to complain about the developments.
“There are a few key areas that need to be looked into to ensure the city’s growth. For me it is necessary because we are creating commercial areas to help the people’s economic situation whereby, they can conduct their businesses and sell their products.
“Secondly, no one wants to have a concrete jungle therefore, all these are planned well so that it will blend with the surrounding and it does not disturb the ecology,” he said, adding that he is all for developments in the city as long as it is sustainable, environmentally-friendly and fits the needs of the people in the area.
Asked whether DBKU is cooperating with the police in their Clean, Beautiful and Safe (CBS) Plan, he said that they are doing more than that since the ‘Safe City Programme’ is the only activity in the last nine years that is conducted together with the police.
Through this, they have already located five hotspots and together with the committee, they want to establish the ‘free of crime’ feeling among the people in those areas.
“We are looking into that as one of the aspects of the Safe Initiative since there are other initiatives to make Kuching safe such as the children’s safety, food safety and many more,” he mentioned.
He further added that they are not looking into getting another award since Kuching was already awarded as the Cleanest City and Healthiest City.
“DBKU are now looking to be age-friendly as there was a survey done that told us that senior citizens are having problems with the lack of facilities provided for them.
“We want to make a lot of places more accessible for them and also to work with local companies to have incentives for the elderly.
“For instance, if you are above 55 years of age and you want to go to the cinema to watch a film, you only need to pay 25 per cent of the full ticket price,” he said.
He personally hoped that since this CBS 2.0 Plan is only under DBKU’s jurisdiction, it would be much better that every jurisdiction or council are able to work together in making Kuching City a city that has it all in terms of being a city that is clean, beautiful, safe, smart, and sustainable.
