Cheras

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 24): Residents of Taman Sri Bahagia in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur are neck deep in potholes, burglaries and snatch thefts, the last two abetted by the darkness provided by malfunctioning street lights.

Chong Kok Choy said the problems were made worse by the jurisdictional uncertainty between City Hall and Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj).

"We are in a rather funny situation. Our roads are located on the jurisdictional borders between City Hall and MPKj, and this causes some things to be overlooked, such as the potholes here," he said in an interview with The Malaysian Insider.

He said MPKj had recently patched up roads, but had done a bad job of it.

"MPKj did not do a proper job in patching up the roads. Most of the road that was patched up are uneven, and some stretches were left unrepaired, like in Jalan Angsana 1/5 (pictured, above)," he said.

He said Jalan Bahagia 10 and various places in the housing scheme were also pitch dark at night because the street lights were not working.

"City Hall has not repaired the street lamps here, especially the ones in Jalan Bahagia 10, making it quite dark at night.

"They have not been working for more than a year and they make the roads even more dangerous because people cannot see the potholes at night," he said.

The darkness provides convenient cover for thieves and burglars, he said, adding that break-ins and snatch thefts had been on the rise in the neighbourhood.

"My car was once broken into at night; they broke my window and tried to steal my car. Thankfully, they didn’t succeed.

"But such incidents happen at least once a month. Last week, during the Chinese New Year, there were a number of break-ins at the houses here.

"There are no lights at all in some places, where it really is pitch black so you can’t see anything at all, even when you switch on you headlights. Those who are out on the roads are easy prey for snatch thieves," he said.

Another resident, Ng Kim Poh said potholes were a recurring problem because of the telecommunication companies that dig up the road to lay underground cables.

"It has been like this for years. There is a stretch of road here that they are constantly resurfacing, but it is always dug up again," he said.

He said street lighting was not merely non-functioning, they were non-existent in some areas.

"The roads near Jalan Bahagia 34 are pitch dark at night, there are no lamp posts there at all," he said.

A resident who wished to be known as Tee wishes for better security in Taman Seri Bahagia.

"There have been quite a number of break-ins here, especially during the Chinese New Year, despite the guardhouses. And out there on the main road, we have many snatch thefts.

"The potholes do not help. They make it harder to move around the area; people cannot drive properly because of the potholes and low light conditions," she said.

She said on top of the insufficiency and poor maintenance of lighting, overgrown branches of trees were contributing to the unsafe conditions at night.

"The trees near the lampposts are overgrown and their branches are obscuring what little light there is from the lamp posts. MPKj and City Hall should at least come by and trim the trees once in a while.

"They usually only maintain the lights and trees near the playground down the street from where I live, and this is unfair.

"The police also no longer make their patrols here. Previously, they would patrol the neighbourhood on their motorcycles once in a while," she said.

She wants the police to install a police letterbox at every street to improve communication between the authorities and residents.

"The police should put a police letterbox on every street. That way, the police will know what is happening here," she said. -- The Malaysian Insider

Cheras

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