GE2025: PAP Punggol team will set up new town council if elected, says DPM Gan
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DPM Gan Kim Yong speaking to residents during a walkabout at One Punggol Hawker Centre on April 29.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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SINGAPORE – If elected, PAP’s Punggol GRC team will form a new town council that will be chaired by Minister of State Sun Xueling, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.
Speaking to reporters at One Punggol on April 29, DPM Gan said a new town council is needed as the existing Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council has been dissolved, with the two towns split into different constituencies
Besides DPM Gan, who helms the PAP’s four-member slate, the other team members are incumbent Pasir-Ris Punggol MPs Yeo Wan Ling and Senior Minister of State Janil Puthucheary, and Ms Sun, the incumbent MP for Punggol West. The single seat has become part of the new Punggol GRC.
DPM Gan said residents have been open with him and given their feedback during his walkabouts in the town since Nomination Day on April 23
“It’s not all positive.
“They don’t say ‘oh good job, please carry on’. Some of them are quite honest, quite open and say that they’ve got problems here,” he said.
“I know that wherever I go, wherever I came from, there will always be issues because the world is not perfect,” he added.
DPM Gan was moved to helm the PAP’s Punggol team in a surprise Nomination Day switch
“You know my style in handling a crisis... we want to be transparent and open,” said DPM Gan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry.
He co-chaired the multi-ministry task force tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and now heads another task force
DPM Gan gave examples of issues that Punggol residents raised, including connectivity issues when making calls in basement carparks.
He said he would oversee the Northshore area if his team is elected.
Problems that residents have raised with him will be “addressed seriously and robustly”, he added.
“I cannot promise I will solve all the problems, but I promise that I will do my level best to improve the situation in Northshore, the environment, as well as to continue to increase connectivity,” he said.
During the 14th Parliament’s term, Northshore came under Dr Janil’s Punggol Coast ward, while Ms Yeo oversaw the Punggol Shore area, which covers estates in the south-eastern end of the town.
Northshore residents have also flagged workmanship issues with their recently completed Housing Board flats and interactions with wildlife, among other issues, DPM Gan said.
“I promised them that I will sit down and work with the relevant agency to see how we can reduce the population of monkeys to make sure that at least our residents in Northshore will feel safe.”
He added that Punggol residents have also requested more covered linkways.
Addressing the town’s younger voters, he noted that there is a wide age gap between the PAP team’s candidates – Ms Sun, the youngest, is 45, while DPM Gan, the oldest, is 66 – and said they have in total about five decades of experience in running town councils.
“Experience counts, but at the same time, we are quite open, we are quite flexible, and we are really keen to engage and listen to our younger generation,” he said.
