Set up associations, residents urged
The Star 3/8/2005

RESIDENTS in Selayang are urged to set up residents associations to make it easier  for them to work with Selayang municipal councillors in solving their problems.

Councillor P. Kamalanathan said the council had divided the municipality into zones, headed by councillors, but it was difficult for the councillors to gather information in areas that did not have residents associations.

“The only way to get information in areas that do not have such associations is to hold a gathering with the residents and often the process of getting all the information is lengthy since we have to meet a large number of residents,” he said.

Kamalanathan said an association would be able to get the people together and compile their complaints so that the councillors could visit the areas with serious problems and look into ways to overcome them.

He said the setting up of residents association was also called for in the Local Agenda 21 that the Selangor Government has adopted and is being implemented in phases by all the local authorities in the state.

“It will help create a platform for the people to voice their opinions on development around their neighbourhoods.”

Kamalanathan was speaking during his meeting with Bandar Country Homes Residents Association (BCHRA) recently to listen to the problems faced by residents.

BCHRA chairman Soong Beng Khoon highlighted a serious problem that the residents had been facing over the last few years and urged Kamalanathan to get the Selayang Municipal Council to carry out road resurfacing work as soon as possible.

“We have been complaining for a long time about the potholes and some of them were patched up, but they would reappear within six months,” said Soong.

He said most residents knew where the potholes were located and were able to avoid them but visitors to the area were exposed to serious danger.

He said the residents had also become more worried following an accident about two years ago in which a youth who lived in the area was killed when he lost control of his machine after hitting a large pothole along the main road.