Felda folk: Give us street lights and proper drainage

More than 50 residents at Felda Lui Timur want the Negeri Sembilan government to install street lights at the main road leading to their settlement and improve drainage system.

JEMPOL: More than 50 residents at Felda Lui Timur are demanding the Negeri Sembilan government to install street lights at the main road leading to their settlement.

The settlers who staged a protest at the entrance of the Felda scheme, also claimed the drainage system in the area was in a dilapidated condition and needed upgrading.

Hussin Jalani, 68, wanted to know why only the main road leading to Lui Timur was without street lights when four other nearby schemes had them at the road leading to their respective areas.

According to Hussin, the four other Felda schemes with street lights were Sungai Lui, Lui Muda, Lui Selatan and Lui Barat.

“We have been living here the past 33 years. Why we can’t have street lights? Roads without proper lighting pose safety problems to the settlers, especially motorbike riders.

“We made numerous appeals to the respective authorities but until today nothing has been done to install street lights,” said Hussin.

Muharam Mohd Sharif, 59, said: “This year alone we raised the issue of street lights and proper drainage system for Lui Mui several times. There has been no reply from the authorities.

“We had no choice but to organise this protest and we hope the government will do something for us.”

Sungai Lui state assemblyman, Zainal Abidin Ahmad, said that the government was in the process of installing street lights.

“It will cost RM350,000 to install the street lights in the area and we need to draw electricity from Felda Sungai Lui or any nearby location to connect supply to Lui Mui. It will take some time.

“For drainage improvement, we have an annual budget of about RM100,000. The road in Lui Timur is about 20km long, and to lay drains on either side, we need 40km of concrete drains.

“With the current budget, it is not sufficient. But we will do our best to improve and repair the drainage system phase by phase and also to install street lights in Lui Mui,” said Zainal.