8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-10-16 Page08 Boost for Klang Valley Rail Network

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newswithout borders8 theSun | FRIDAY OCTOBER 16 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: More trainswill be added in the Klang Valley tomeet the governments goal to raise

the use of public transport from 16%at present to 25% by 2012, TransportMinister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keatsaid yesterday.

The target for Penang andJohor Baru would be set later, hesaid in his speech read out by theministrys deputy secretary-general

(planning), Datuk Long See Wool,at the national summit on urbanpublic transport.

Our immediate focus is to en-hance the capacity, service levels,coverage, and connectivity for allmodes of public transport, withparticular emphasis on elevatingrail as the backbone of urban publictransport, he said.

Ong said with only 19km of

track per million population, railcoverage in the Klang Valley was lowcompared with other major cities

of the world and the existing threerailway systems and stage buseswhich handled 260,000 passengertrips in the morning rush hour wereovercrowded.

For our commuters living alongthe Ipoh-Rawang line, four newelectric trains sets (ETS) will be in-troduced between December this yearand March next year.

He said RM200 million had beenallocated to purchase 10 sets of elec-

tric multiple units (EMU) for KTMBerhad.

For the congested Kelana Jaya

LRT line, the government plans toadd 10 new trains with four cars byend of this year.

We will continue to put into serv-ice additional four-car sets in batchesuntil all 35 are operational by 2012. Bythen, our current capacity of 25 trainswith 70 cars will grow to 70 trainswith 210 cars, he said.

By 2012, the LRT line from Ke-lana Jaya would be extended to PutraHeights via Subang Jaya and the

Ampang-Sri Petaling service wouldbe extended to Puchong and also endin Putra Heights.

A new LRT line from Kota Daman-sara to Cheras covering 42.8 km wasbeing studied.

The LRT line extensions and newline will increase our rail coverage inthe Klang Valley to 32km per millionpopulation, Ong said.

Outside the Klang Valley, theelectric double tracking project fromIpoh to Padang Besar in the north,and Seremban to Gemas in the South,were being completed. Bernama

Red tape hinders maids keen towork in Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Hundreds ofIndonesian women are willingto work in Malaysia as domesticmaids because they have heardgood things about the country fromtheir friends and relatives who haveworked here a senior Indonesiantrade unionist said yesterday.

However, it was difficult forthese women to come here official-ly because of bureaucratic red tapeback home, said Confederation ofIndonesian Trade Unions treasurergeneral, Aisah Teisir Abdat.

These women had to gothrough seven agents or authori-ties, beginning from the villagehead to district and provisional of-ficials and agents, to federal level,before getting the green light, shesaid on the sidelines of the Interna-tional Trade Union Confederation

(Asia-Pacific) Regional Conferenceon Domestic Workers, here.

She said since it was difficultand costly to get official permis-sion, women took chances andentered Malaysia illegally to workas maids.

Their illegal status then madethem very vulnerable and at themercy of errant employers whotook advantage of them, shesaid.

She said the abuse of maidswas a common phenomenon in allcountries around the world due tothe nature of their job.

So it was wrong to say abuseof maids was only prevalent inMalaysia, she added.

A total of 35 participants fromBangladesh, Hongkong, Bahrain,India, Indonesia, Jordan, Nepal, the

Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Sin-gapore and Malaysia are attendingthe two-day conference which wasopened by the Human ResourcesMinistry secretary-general DatukR. Segarajah.

Human rights activist Dr IreneFernandez said the maids werevulnerable as they worked inhomes which are considered tobe private entity and no outsidersare allowed access.

This makes it difficult to reachthem if they need assistance, shesaid.

This was why, it was importantto give these maids a day off aweek, she said.

They can use their days off toseek redress from either the labourdepartment or NGOs, she said. Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: He caught his wifeand her lover in the act and out ofanger hit the man with a piece ofwood.

The man died due to the injuriesinflicted. Yesterday, Lee Meng Chingwas sentenced to eight years jail forthe offence.

Lee, 36, pleaded guilty to causingthe death of Chong Swee Sang, 49,

at house No 7X, Jalan Dua, JalanChan Sow Lin, here at 4am onJune 22, 2005.

Judicial Commissioner Az-man Abdullah ordered Lee toserve the sentence from the

date of his arrest on June 22,2005.

In handing down the sentence,Azman said a life was lost and Leeshould not have taken the law intohis own hands.

However, he said the court tookinto consideration Lees condition,where he had warned Chong twicenot to go near his wife, but on theday of the incident, saw his wife andChong naked and having sex.

The tool used was a piece ofwood which was taken outsideChongs house.

Chong had challenged Lee as aman because of his wifes infidelity.Lee has no previous record, but hewas not able to control his angerbecause of his wifes infidelity and

Chongs mischievousness, headded.

Lee was initially charged withmurder, but the prosecution amend-ed the charge to that of causingdeath after calling three witnesses.

In mitigation, Lee, who wasrepresented by lawyer AndrewDavis, said he was remorseful andwanted to take care of his childrenwho were now under the care of hisolder brother.

Deputy public prosecutor Ah-mad Akhram Gharib, in asking for aheavier sentence, said because ofthe incident, Chongs wife was leftalone to fend for her disabled child. Bernama

Eight years for causing death of wifes lover

BoostBoost for Klang Valley rail networkfor Klang Valley rail network

US plansnewstrategy

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briefs

Deepavali reprieve forcowherdsGEORGE TOWN: The cowherds perse-vering at the fringes of the demolishedKampung Buah Pala got some earlyDeepavali relief when the Penang gov-ernment told the project developer there,not to touch an adjacent state land onwhich the cowherds were surviving.

Deputy Chief Minister (II) Prof Dr P.Ramasamy said in a telephone interview

yesterday he had told Nusmetro Ventures(P) Sdn Bhd they were not to demolishany of the cowsheds on the state land.

He said the cowherds have been giventwo weeks to look for an alternative site.The cowherds have been at a loss overwhere to move their 200-odd cattle.

Ramasamys statement came aftera stand-off on Wednesday between thecowherds and contractors hired by Nus-metro when workers tried to tear downthe cow pen.

Man charged withdouble murderKOTA BARU: A jobless man wascharged in the magistrates courthere yesterday with murdering a Thaiwoman and her daughter last month.Mazdi Muhammad, 31, is alleged tohave murdered Maena Ya, 36, andher one-month-old daugthter, NunaNurasyiken, at an unnumberedhouse in Kampung Sireh at about2.30am on Sept 30. No plea wasrecorded. Bernama

Fugitive ex-Iraqi MPheld in MalaysiaBAGHDAD: A former MP, in hiding foreight months after being accused ofordering a 2007 bomb attack in the Iraqiparliaments canteen, has been arrestedin Malaysia, an MP said yesterday.

The Malaysian government has

informed us through our embassythat they have arrested Mohammedal-Daini, who was holding a diplomaticpassport, Mithal al-Alussi, a secularSunni deputy, told AFP.

We ask the Iraqi government to

move swiftly to bring him back toBaghdad, he said.

Malaysian police did not immedi-ately confirm the arrest.

Daini, a Sunni Arab who has insistedon his innocence, originally fled to Syriabefore moving to Egypt and then on toMalaysia, according to Modhi Awad,brother of Mohammed Awad, an MPkilled in the April 2007 bombing, whichalso claimed seven other lives. AFP

Explosive thrown atDAP mans houseSIBU: An explosive was again thrown atthe house of Wong Ho Leng, the stateDAP chairman at Jalan Ipoh here.

The CCTV camera at his houseshowed two men throwing the explo-sive at 7.26pm on Wednesday night.

I was opening the door when Isaw a large flash of fire followed by

an explosion.The flares shot everywhere includ-ing my house compound. The grassat the side of the drain caught fire,Wong, whose house was similarlyattacked on Sept 27, told Bernama.