THE Auditor-General Report 2018 Series 3 highlighted the ticking time bomb slopes have become for Malaysian motorists because of collapse and landslide risks.

The lack of funding to Public Works Department (JKR) has caused a halt to routine maintenance inspection of slopes since 2013 and is unacceptable.

In 2018, less than 6% of slopes underwent failure prevention works, leaving another 94% as ticking time bombs.

Last year, Cameron Highlands alone experienced three severe landslides at Jalan Ringlet-Blue Valley, Jalan Ulu Merah and Jalan Simpang Pulai-Cameron Highlands.

It’s clear that the Najib Razak-led Barisan Nasional government’s misplaced austerity measures from 2013 had risked Malaysian lives.

It costs only RM200 million to undertake failure prevention works to prevent loss of future lives.

This is gravely unacceptable and Perikatan Nasional (PN) government must reverse these austerity measure immediately. – July 17, 2020.

* Sharan Raj reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.