KOTA TINGGI, March 9 — A total of 3,200 land lots are being provided for the second generation of Felda settlers in Johor in a bid to resolve part of the housing issues in Felda areas.
For that purpose, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the federal and state governments had also agreed to jointly set aside allocation totalling RM60 million to develop the infrastructure in those areas.
“This is a new concept. We no longer sell ready-made houses but land lots to the second generation of Felda for them to build their own houses with the state government providing the land and we (federal government) help in developing the infrastructure.
“The government agreed that RM30 million from the cost for infrastructure development will be borne by the federal government and Felda and the other RM30 million by the state government,” he told a press conference after the presentation of 2022 Johor level Prosperous Malaysian Family Rukun Tetangga Community (KRT) grants at Felda Lok Heng Barat Community Sports Hall here today.
He said by providing the land lots, part of the housing issues which had been plaguing the second generation of Felda settlers could be resolved and hence, smoothen the implementation of development plans in Felda areas.
Ismail Sabri said to resolve water woes in Felda Kota Tinggi and its surrounding areas, the government has also approved an allocation of RM41 million to upgrade Air Gembut water treatment plant, which would channel water directly to Lok Heng water treatment plant.
“The same goes with the effort to resolve telecommunication issues as the government had discussed with the telecommunication companies and agreed to build a cellular phone substation.
“An elephant sanctuary will also be built and expected to be ready by 2025 to resolve the issue of elephants which are roaming around and damaging the crops in Felda areas,” he said.
He said Felda had also agreed to donate RM10 million to the Youth Entrepreneurs Fund since many settlers had also ventured into entrepreneurship, and to appoint youth representatives as members of Felda Board of Directors.
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri also reminded political parties contesting in the Johor state election not to play up Felda issues as their campaign material and as an attempt to manipulate the minds of the settlers and their second generation.
“Felda issues have been purposely used as campaign material in Kota Tinggi as 80 per cent of the voters are Felda settlers and Johor is the second-largest Felda site after Pahang. Felda settlers are Malay voters and they are usually loyal to the (previous) Barisan Nasional government. That’s why Felda is like a fixed deposit for Umno and certain parties are trying to manipulate the issues which I think is not right,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said the details on the reopening of borders would be announced by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin so to ensure that it would run smoothly without any hiccups.
So far, he said there was no issue relating to the reopening of air and sea borders as it will not involve quarantine, but a screening test at the airport will be required within 24 hours, which may be quite difficult to be carried out at the land border, especially in Johor as many people travel between the state and Singapore on daily basis.
“We have two categories of travellers, namely tourists and daily commuters travelling between Johor and Singapore. If we were to do the RTK test at the borders, can you imagine the queue and the congestion? So, we cannot compel them to do a PCR test three days before travelling as they are travelling on daily basis.
“That’s why we are reopening of borders on April 1, so that these issues can be resolved first. KJ (Khairy) will announce the details later,” he added.
Yesterday, the prime minister announced that Malaysia will enter the Transition to Endemic Phase and will reopen its borders starting April 1. — Bernama
