Budget 2023: Village street lights programme should continue to improve rural residents’ quality of life
21 Sep 2022 08:37am
Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB) secretary-general Datuk Ramlan Harun (middle) together with LJK10 Project Director and General Manager (main project) of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) Abdul Razak Salleh (left) and SESB Chief Executive Officer Ir Mohd Yaakob Jaafar (right) ) during a press conference at the handing over of the village street light (LJK) programme and Diesel Power Plants for Kampung Litang and Kampung Balat Kinabatangan - Bernama photo
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He said to realise that goal, KPLB has applied for an allocation of RM50 million under Budget 2023 to install more than 19,000 units of lights for residents of rural areas nationwide.
"This year there is no provision (for the LJK programme) and we have applied in Budget 2023 to continue this programme. If approved, we will continue this project nationwide starting next year and (more than 19,000 units) will be distributed according to the needs of the states.
"If you look at the individual scale of this LJK project, it looks small but it has a big impact on the rural population because it can brighten up the village, especially the area that is the focus and the villagers can carry out activities more safely,” he said at a press conference here today.
Earlier, he officiated the handover of the LJK programme for 2019/2022 Phase 10 and the rural electricity supply (BELB) (diesel power station) of the village restructuring (PSK) programme of Kampung Balat and Kampung Litang.
Also present were Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Mohd Yaakob Jaafar and KPLB deputy secretary-general (Development) Mas Rizal Mohd Hilmi.
Ramlan said that for Sabah and Labuan, a total of 49,856 units of village street lights have been installed in rural areas involving 45,051 units of High Pressure Sodium Vapour (HPSV) lights and 4,805 units of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights.
He said out of that amount, 4,000 units of HPSV lights and 1,000 units of LED lights were installed under the LJK programme for 2019/2022 Phase 10 from Jan 7, 2020, to Dec 8, 2021, involving a cost of RM5.96 million with a liability period until Dec 9, 2023.
He added that RM2.3 million was allocated under the BELB to resume the abandoned diesel power station project meant for the PSK of Kampung Balat and Kampung Litang in Kinabatangan.
"A total of RM 8.26 million (allocation) for village street lights and rural electricity supply which are implemented simultaneously to benefit 1.24 million residents,” he said. - Bernama
