LABUAN: The Sabah Ports and
Harbours Department should scrap the RM1.50 domestic passenger charge on
passengers leaving Menumbok to Labuan via the water taxis or ro-ro ferries unless
the department could provide acceptable standard facilities at the Menumbok
departure terminal.
MIC Chairman Ramasamy
Rengasamy, who spent half an hour last Monday from 5pm waiting for a water
taxi, said:
"The terminal was
stinking because the two toilet doors were open and the stench was because both
the toilets had dry taps.
"Passengers using the
toilets depended on rainwater collected in drums to wash and this definitely
was not good enough. It was nauseous, so why should passengers be asked to pay
for use of the terminal and inhale stink?" he asked.
The department began
charging the amount after the terminal was opened in 2007. Daily a few hundred
people use the terminal, especially those passengers waiting for the water
taxi.
However, even the ro-ro
ferry passengers were also charged the same fee though most of them did not use
the terminal but waited for the ferry in the vehicle.
Another nuisance about the
charge is that while a passenger needs to buy his boarding pass at the ferry
counter, the domestic passenger charge has to be paid at another counter in the
terminal.
The department had imposed
the charge under the Ports and Harbours Enactment 2002, Ports and Harbours
(Government Wharves) Regulations 2008. In Labuan, there is no such charge on
passengers levied by the Federal Marine Department.
Ramasamy said the water
shortage was regular in Menumbok.
He spoke to one stall owner
and was told that not only the terminal regularly had no piped water supply but
most of the premises in the area, including schools.
He said the residents
handled the problem by pumping water from wells and storing it in drums.
"There was a huge water
reserve tank in Menumbok, but I am told it was usually dry and only filled up
when a Minister or VIP was due to visit Menumbok," said Ramasamy.
Recently, Sabah
Infrastructure Development Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan told the
State Assembly that RM6 million would be spent to upgrade facilities at the
Menumbok ferry terminal.
The project is to take off.
kemudahan tu kenalah lengkap.. tandas kenalah bersih.
ReplyDeleteSediakan kemudahan sebaiknya ditempat yang perlu.
ReplyDeleteBayar tapi perkhidmatan sangat teruk memang tidak patut.
ReplyDeleteKasi murah la saja tu
Deletelebih tiada monopoli dalam pengakutan di sana.
ReplyDeletesepatutnya ada pengurusan yang baik untuk perkhidmatan pengangkutan barulah nampak lebih teratur dan perkhidmatan pun memuaskan.
DeleteMasalah bekalan air perlu diatasi dengan segera.
ReplyDeletebagaimana jika orang luar yang menggunakan kemudahan itu??
ReplyDeletetidak salah dan tidak rugi jika kemudahan itu dibaik pulih supaya lebih cantik, kemas, selesa dan bersih..
ReplyDelete