The Malaysian Insider

IPOH, Nov 11 – The Kinta Selatan district council was not the only authority unaware that someone had built an illegal suspension bridge over the Kampar river in Kuala Dipang – the district education department, too, was in the dark that such a structure had been erected on its premises.

District education director Raja Abdul Rahman Raja Amran had apparently seen the 50m-long azure-blue bridge for the first time on Oct 16, only 11 days before the bridge collapsed and caused the deaths of three young girls.

This was claimed today by the Pakatan Rakyat’s ad hoc taskforce, which was formed parallel to the one by the Education Ministry, to conduct a more comprehensive investigation into the incident on Oct 27.

The taskforce’s chairman, Tronoh assemblyman V. Sivakumar, told a press conference today that the committee discovered this after an interview with Raja Abdul Rahman yesterday.

“The district education director himself did not know that the bridge was being built, he only knew about it after it was constructed,” said Sivakumar.

He added that Raja Abdul Rahman, in the interview with the taskforce, had also revealed that such a bridge had been in the pipeline much earlier but no proper plan had been put in place as yet.

The bridge connects SK Kuala Dipang and the district education department’s co-curriculum centre.

“So, who built it then? And under whose orders, when the director himself knows nothing about it?” said Sivakumar.

He added that during the earlier stage, the centre had proposed the construction of the bridge to the district education department but had kept silent when the department’s development officer gave an exorbitant quotation of RM110,000.

“According to the director, there was no follow-up after that because the cost was just too high.

“But yet, the bridge was built and the centre failed to inform the department,” said Sivakumar.

He added that the department’s office was on Pangkor Island.

“We know also that a private company was engaged to do the job but, as of now, we are unable to reveal that information,” said Sivakumar.

The PR’s ad hoc taskforce had revealed last week that the bridge was illegal since no formal application had been made to the local district council to construct it.

Sivakumar also rapped the education department for failing to handle the 1 Malaysia Camp programme efficiently.

“The director also told us that initially, 40 teachers had been slated to help with taking care of the 298 children in the programme.

“On the day of the programme itself however, only 23 teachers had turned up. They should have a contingency plan, at least ... how can so few teachers handle so many students?” said Sivakumar.

He added that the PR’s ad hoc taskforce had also engaged its own civil engineer to conduct tests at the incident site.

“We conducted a soil test today and initial investigations show that the soil at the river banks is soft, too soft.

“However, we will first wait for the report from the engineer before revealing our findings,” he said.

He added that the taskforce would meet with the Drainage and Irrigation Department next, as well as pay a visit to the co-curriculum centre’s office on Pangkor Island.

“Our full report should be compiled and ready by this Sunday and we will reveal it to the media next Monday,” said Sivakumar.

The ad hoc taskforce also announced that it would proceed with its plan to hold a public inquiry into the incident.

Sivakumar said that the inquiry would be held from 10am to 1pm this Saturday at the Grand Kampar Hotel in Kampar.

“Those who have information about the incident and are willing to come forward to speak to us can come and meet us at the hotel,” he said.

Those interested could contact taskforce member, Teja assemblyman Chang Lih Kang, at 012-5173067 to make an appointment prior to the meeting.

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