Johor appoints concessionary companies for road maintenance works

NUSAJAYA: Johor has, in principle, agreed to appoint two concessionary companies to undertake state road maintenance works, said Works, Regional and Rural Development Committee chairman, Datuk Hasni Mohammad.
He said the agreement to appoint Teto Engineering Sdn Bhd and Amona Infra Care Sdn Bhd, was clinched at the Johor government council meeting on Nov 24 last year.
"At present the Johor State Economic Planning Unit, Works Department (PWD)and related technical departments are studying the terms of reference for the state road maintenance works," he said when replying to Datuk Syed Sis Syed A. Rahman (BN-Tanjung Surat) during question time at the Johor state legislative assembly sitting here today.
Hasni said the maintenance works comprising road surface patching, roadside repair, drain cleaning and others, were now being carried out by PWD with annual allocation provided by the federal and state governments.
Sub-contractors would also be apppointed by the concessionary companies to ensure they were not being sidelined, he said.
Meanwhile Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the size of Johor Malay reserve land had increased to 554,920 hectares in the first four months of this year from 432,157 hectares end of last year.
Replying to supplementary questions from Ayub Jamil (BN-Rengit) and Datuk Samsol Bari Jamali (BN-Semarang), he said the state government's commitment to raise the percentage of Malay reserve land was part of efforts to control ownership by foreigners in the state.
"The acreage of Malay reserve land has increased from 22.8% last year to 29.2% up to April 30 this year," he told the sitting.
State Education, Entrepreneurial Development and Information Committee chairman Md Jais Sarday said the Education Department had implemented six programmes this year to address bullying in schools, especially among hostel residents.
Replying to Ismail Roslan (BN-Semerah), he said these included anti-social integrated programmes, distributing a guidebook on handling bullying in schools and intensifying anti-bullying campaigns in schools. – Bernama