GEORGE TOWN: State Local Government Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo today reminded newly sworned-in Penang Island City Council (MBPP) councillors to perform their duties diligently.
He said councillors should make good use of the generous allocation given to the city council by the Penang government for its 2020 expenditure.
“In the 2020 State Budget announced in Nov last year, MBPP was given a RM211.99 million allocation for all its programmes, including RM118 million to assist economic growth, RM5.3 million to implement Smart City goals and RM71.2 million to improve infrastructure.
“The state government has helped the MBPP with the allocation,
“So, please carry out your duties well for the benefit of the people,” he said during the swearing-in ceremony today which saw 24 individuals taking their oath as councillors.
Jagdeep also pointed out that the state government had set several goals for MBPP, which he hoped would be successfully achieved.
“One of the goals is to increase safety through installation of more close circuit television cameras (CCTVs).
“At the moment, there are 1,071 CCTVs in the state and we want to see another 500 CCTVs added on the island bringing the total CCTVs to about 1,400,”
“We cannot simply stop there as we can do better to increase the number of CCTVs by looking at other strategic locations,” he said, adding that police had acknowledged that CCTVs were instrumental in crime solving effort.
Jadgeep also noted that the goal to plant more trees in the state and to change all its street lamps into LED (light-emitting diode) lights were in line with the state’s green city goals.
“We hope by the end of the year, we will be the first city in Malaysia to go 100 per cent of LED lights installation,” he said.
Jagdeep also congratulated MBPP for its many accolades achieved last year, and that it would continue to strive towards perfection.