ELECTRICITY SUPPLY TO RESIDENTS OF PUNGGOL ROAD (7� milestone to 11 milestone)

Mr Ng Teng Kian asked the Prime Minister if he will indicate when will the residents of 7� milestone to 11 milestone Punggol Road get their electricity supply.

The Prime Minister: Sir, the land referred to is a low-lying area which is flooded after heavy rain by a run out from 96 odd acres of land on the opposite side of Upper Serangoon Road between the 6� and 7 m.s. The run out converges into a culvert at the 6� m.s. Upper Serangoon Road from where it flows under the road into an earth drain which passes through Lot 97-2 ---

Mr David Marshall rose ---

Mr Speaker: Is it a point of order?

Mr David Marshall: If it please you. Mr Speaker, Sir, you asked for Question No. 7. I think we are getting the answer to Question No. 8.

The Prime Minister: I beg your pardon. Yes. It is all this ---

Tun Lim Yew Hock: It must have been the tea!

The Prime Minister: Yes. Very potent tea, Mr Speaker, Sir.

Punggol Road, in answer to Question No. 7, Sir, is 4 miles long, and parts of it are mangrove swamps and very sparsely populated. The Urban and Rural Services Consultative Committee have a provisional scheme in hand to supply electricity to the more densely populated areas, houses in the vicinity of Jalan Buang Kok, and Punggol Road 9 milestone. A final decision on these points will be taken after the residents have made their views and preferences known when I visit their constituency.

Mr Ng Teng Kian (Punggol): (In Mandarin): Does the Prime Minister know that at the 11 milestone Yio Chu Kang Road the population compares less favourably with the population at the 9 milestone Punggol Road? In this area, there is a Malay school and other facilities. So the facilities do not compare less favourably with those at Yio Chu Kang 11 milestone.

Mr Speaker: Order. I do not think I quite get the last part of it. I suppose the question is: has the Prime Minister taken consideration of all those facts?

The Prime Minister: Sir, I must admit I have not as yet paid a formal visit to this constituency. It is part of Singapore. But I do receive reports from my officials, and, as I have said in my reply, I shall make a personal investigation into this matter before the plans are finalised. No doubt when I make my visit, the residents will make their views known to me much more cogently and forcefully that the Member for Punggol can do.

Mr Chan Sun Wing (Upper Serangoon): (In Mandarin): According to the Prime Minister's statement, does it mean that the Prime Minister must go there first before such facilities can be granted?

The Prime Minister: Not at all. Often the case is so obvious. The work proceeds and is completed without its ever being raised in this House. The pity of it all is that we get no thanks from the Members of the Opposition for installing lights, water, electricity, sanitation, drains, culverts and bridges in their constituencies. However, no doubt the residents of the various areas know of the work that has been going on, and credit will be given to the proper quarters, in due course. But when it is a borderline case, then, of course, one has to consider the preferences, and as I say, there is nothing like hearing from people who live iii the area themselves - the recipients of these various benefits - as to which particular project they wish to have proceeded with first.