Courtesy: The Borneo Post


Millions spent on futsal courts

by Ting Tieng Hee

July 20, 2012, Friday

KUCHING: The Department of Youth and Sports is calling on the people to take the initiative to maintain the 1Malaysia futsal courts being built throughout the country for the benefits of their youths.

A total of 149 1Malaysia futsal courts were constructed under the Ninth Malaysia Plan including 71 under parliamentary constituencies with each cost about RM150,000 to build complete with lighting and toilet facilities.

Doing the maths, the government has spent a whopping RM13.5 million in Sarawak alone just to provide good sports facilities for the youths to spend their leisure time wisely.

“Kuching has the highest number of courts with 26, followed by 17 each in Samarahan and Limbang and 15 each in Betong and Sibu,” said the department’s acting state director, Razali Mohamad.

“Under the 10th Malaysia Plan, the total number of courts is 83 with 64 already completed while 14 are still under construction and five in the process of tender for contractors,” said Razali on government’s efforts in building the courts so that the youths can get involved in sports and healthy activities.

He admitted that there were instances where people only wanted to use the facilities but did not want to maintain them.

In that respect, sports clubs and associations, municipal councils or Village Security and Development Committees (JKKK) throughout the state should take the initiative to maintain the facilities provided by the government and it is the people’s duty to take good care of it so that it can be enjoyed by all.

“It is also up to them to charge the users so that the money collected can be used to offset the electricity bills and water bills as well as the upkeep of the futsal courts,” Razali said during a joint press conference with Saberkas secretary Datuk Aidan Wing and Saberkas exco members yesterday.

The group paid a courtesy visit to the department at the Youth and Sports Complex of Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce.

“You cannot just solely depend on the government and the people can also ask for grants from their representatives – assemblymen or members of parliament (MP) for that purpose,” he said while disclosing that there is no budget set aside by the government for the maintenance of the futsal courts.

Meanwhile, the department would be working closely with Saberkas to organise two special youth programmes in Kuching and Miri after Hari Raya next month in which the youth group will be running the programmes while the department will be sponsoring the expenses.

He said Saberkas would be focusing on organising more activities for youths and the non-government organisation had recently recruited young graduates as their ambassadors in the move to promote Saberkas’ work for the youths in the state.

“We are looking forward to organising more activities for our youths on a bigger scale in collaboration with the Department of Youth and Sports,” he said while thanking the ministry for the continuous support over the years.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com