KUCHING: Serian District Council (SDC) can possibly be elevated to a municipal council in the next few years.
Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong in harbouring such belief, said the council, with 60 years of providing its services, had done wonders in the area.
These include making sacrifices and contributions to make sure that the villages are free from Covid-19.
“The council in the past has built many roads including schools; these were among the wonders you had done although the budget was not big at that time,” he said during SDC 60th diamond jubilee anniversary celebration at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Friday evening (Dec 18).
“Therefore to upgrade SDC into a municipality just like Padawan (Padawan Municipal Council) or Samarahan (Kota Samarahan Municipal Council), definitely it is a dream but it has to start somewhere.
“So you have this dream; hopefully this dream will come true in the next few years because you have done many things in order to be upgraded into a municipality.
“This is a big dream but we have to dream big in order to make ourselves successful and in order to establish something big. In the next few years I believe that you will realise that dream,” said Manyin.
Meanwhile, SDC secretary Constantine Gerald David Jonas said the council, then known as Upper Sadong District Council, was established in 1959. Then in 1985, the council was renamed to SDC or locally known as Majlis Daerah Serian (MDS).
“Over the past 60 years we have witnessed changes to the development trend in Serian. Serian which was once a district in the Samarahan division has been upgraded to a 12th Division in Sarawak in 2015.
At the same time Tebedu is also upgraded to a full district and the Siburan area has been included in the Serian division as a sub-district,” he said.
He said the increase in size of the area and the growing population in Serian division had caused the services provided by the council to increase.
“The annual operating expenses have increased. To address this, the council through the valuation and taxation division as well as the finance section has successfully increased the revenue of SDC from RM4.7 million in 2006 to RM9.9 million last year,” he said.
On projects implementation, he said the council’s engineering division had carried out government projects such as rural transformation project (RTPs), economic stimulus projects, projects under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11 MP) and Malaysian Road Record Information System (Marris) projects including maintenance of trenches, sewers, street lights, bus stops, signboards, and roads.
“In addition to the main services, the council also does not neglect its responsibilities to the local community and various community programmes have been implemented by the council’s Community Development Division and Library Section in collaboration with community leaders and the community,” he said.
For the time being the council was awarded a 4-star rating in service delivery by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing Malaysia last year, he added.
“With this, we will keep our commitment to deliver council services in Serian,” said Constantine.
Earlier, the event also saw the launching of SDC’s coffee table book and a cake cutting ceremony to mark the council’s 60th anniversary celebration.
Also present were Ministry of Local Government and Housing acting permanent secretary Desmond Douglas Jerukan, Assistant Transport Minister Datuk Dr Jerip Susil, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan, Kedup assemblyman Martin Ben, Bukit Semuja assemblyman John Ilus, Serian Resident Tuah Suni, political secretary to the chief minister Dr Simon Sinang Bada and SDC chairman Lim Hock Meng.
