Complete infrastructure first before turning Jerlun into full district, Kedah state assembly told

ALOR STAR: The Kedah government should ensure the necessary infrastructure are met before declaring Jerlun a full district, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.
State housing and local government, water supply, water and energy resources committee chairman, Datuk Badrol Hisham Hashim said prior to this, Jerlun was twice declared sub-district and the process of upgrading to a full district must take into account several important factors, especially infrastructure.
"The construction of infrastructure projects across the district has to be planned properly as it has to play vital roles to boost the economic growth over there," he said when replying to Datuk Abu Hasan Sarif (BN-Kota Seputeh) here.
Badrol Hisham also said creating a new district would involve cost and manpower as there was a need to set up the district office and government agencies.
As such, he said the process would take a long time just like in the process of declaring Pokok Sena a new district before this.
"We are aware of the rapid development in the district of Kubang Pasu. So, we are taking all matters into account to develop Jerlun and turn it into a full district.
"If we look (at the timeline), the application to turn Pokok Sena into a full district was done in 1991, and the approval from the Cabinet was obtained in 2007, before declaring it in 2009. Indeed, it took a long time," said Badrol Hisham.
He said a number of developments currently being planned in Jerlun could attract the people and the state government would relook the matter to upgrade Jerlun.
In addition to Kubang Pasu, other districts in Kedah are Pokok Sena, Kota Star, Kuala Muda, Padang Terap, Kulim, Yan, Langkawi, Sik, Baling, Pendang and Bandar Baru. — Bernama