Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday criticized the Taoyuan County Government, accusing its commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) of misappropriating resources to boost the county’s population and upgrade it into a special municipality.
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said public sector employees, including police officers, that successfully encourage people to settle in Taoyuan have been rewarded with gift certificates, bonuses and even vacation days.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday that Lin Chien-hsiang (林健祥), a local patrolman, would be rewarded with 54 merit points after successfully persuading 61 people to move their residences to the county.
“What kind of county commissioner does this?” DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) asked yesterday. “The police should be out there fighting crime. Instead they are busy encouraging people to change their residency.”
“To help Taoyuan’s chances of becoming a special municipality, Wu has gone completely crazy,” Chiu said, adding that there have been reports of county employees being made to tell their department heads why they have not encouraged people to move to Taoyuan.
These moves could land Wu in hot water if he is found to have broken the law, DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said, adding that there are a number of laws that prevent public sector employees from engaging in other tasks apart from their regular duties.
Taoyuan County officially reached a population of 2 million on Monday. Under the Local Government Act (地方制度法), counties that have a population above 2 million get the same privileges as special municipalities.
Special municipalities and provinces are the highest level of administration under Taiwan’s administrative divisions. They have more control over their finances and can receive an increased share of revenue from the central government.
Sinbei City, Greater Taichung and Greater Tainan are set to be upgraded into special municipalities, joining Taipei and Kaohsiung city in December. Kaohsiung County will also be merged with Kaohsiung City to become a special municipality by year’s end.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS