PADAWAN: Federal Deputy Plantation and Commodities Minister Willie Mongin is committed to building more farm roads in Puncak Borneo as he looks to boost the economy of the local people.
He said the construction of farm roads should continue because more people were getting involved in farming seriously.
“Farm roads are normally built upon the request of a group of farmers in a village. They make their request once they have started to do their farming activities.
“For example, the Kampung Karu villagers had requested for funds from me to build a farm road to Peroh Rembang area where, they had already started planting rubber on about 200 hectares of land,” he told reporters at the Merdeka @ Komuniti programme at Kampung Peraya here, last Monday.
Willie, who is also Puncak Borneo MP, said he recently approved the allocation for a farm road at Kampung Jambu.
Apart from that, he said the federal government, through the Department of Agriculture, had also funded the construction of a farm road at Kampung Stabut where the residents had started planting rubber, durian and other cash crops.
“Construction of farm roads is a work in progress as the federal and state governments want to continue bringing development to the people.
“When we construct the farm road (either funded with outright grant allocation, where people can do it through gotong-royong or with allocation from Project Mesra Rakyat), the people can do integrated farming and plant fast crops between the rubber terraces and other commodities,” he said, adding that farm roads could also be constructed with funds from other relevant agencies and ministries.
Further elaborating, Willie said he had also secured quite a number of projects for Puncak Borneo from the Rural Development Ministry, Housing and Local Government Ministry as well as other ministries.
According to him, the total amount that he had secured this year was around RM2mil to RM3mil.
On the RM3mil allocation that he had secured for street lighting along Jalan Puncak Borneo last year, he said RM200,000 had been disbursed.
“The balance of RM2.8mil would be disbursed after the Sarawak Energy Berhad had given bill of quantity (BQ) to Padawan Municipal Council (PMC).
“Once PMC had gotten the BQ from SEB, the council can have the costing prior to the implementation of street lighting.”
At the event, Willie also handed over a total of RM50,000 in grants to Kampung Peraya villagers – RM20,000 for the village security and development committee, RM20,000 for Pinyewa Association and RM10,000 for St Anthony’s Church.
