The Orang Asli community in Kampung Pertak, Selangor made no application to improve the road connecting their settlement to the burial ground, claimed the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa).
In a statement today, Jakoa said its Hulu Selangor branch had visited the road on Feb 9, 2022, and had proposed to the community to improve the road condition but claimed some of the Orang Asli settlers rejected it.
"Some of the settlers that owned 'campsites' and plantations in the settlement didn’t agree with our proposal.
"This was because they were worried that outsiders would enter the area using 4x4 vehicles which could cause damage to the road.
"For your information, the road in question is often used by the public - bringing 4x4 vehicles to go into that area and disturbing the villagers’ orchards, resulting in damage to the existing road," it said.
As both the authorities and the Orang Asli community failed to reach an understanding on the matter, a proper road could not be constructed, Jakoa added.
‘No-allocation claim untrue’
Yesterday, the chairperson of the Orang Asli Village Development and Security Committee Zahidi Kising said they have made requests to the state and federal governments to repair the road since 2017 but to no avail.
“But we are always told there is no allocation. Sometimes, they tell us a huge allocation is required to fix the road.
“Of late, there has been no response to our requests or letters of complaint. We hope the state and federal governments can rectify this problem before polling day,” Zahidi added.
On that note, Jakoa also refuted the no-allocation claim, stressing that no application was made in the first place.
"This year, the government through Jakoa, had once again held an engagement session with the Orang Asli village of Kampung Pertak to discuss upgrading that road.
"After several meetings with the village residents, a consensus was reached on March 9 for the road to be repaired and upgraded," it added. - Mkini
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