Getting to know Hong Kah North residents on Grace Fu's agenda

Of the five wards in the new GRC, the Yuhua MP is less familiar with this area

- Chin Hui Shan

Over the next few weeks, Ms Grace Fu, who is the MP for Yuhua SMC, which is having parts of it absorbed into Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC, plans to familiarise herself with the Hong Kah North area and the issues its residents face.

Like Yuhua, parts of Hong Kah North SMC have been merged into the new group representation constituency under the changes to electoral boundaries announced on March 11.

The new Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC will also include Bukit Batok SMC and parts of the existing Jurong GRC, namely Bukit Batok East and Clementi.

Speaking on The Straits Times' current affairs podcast The Usual Place on March 20, Ms Fu said she is familiar with four of the five wards that make up the new GRC - Bukit Batok, Bukit Batok East, Clementi and Yuhua - since they are served by the same town council.

The existing Jurong-Clementi Town Council serves Bukit Batok SMC and Yuhua SMC, as well as Jurong GRC.

"We have regular meetings because we have the same set of employees who help us manage the municipal issues. So we are fairly familiar with one another," she said.

"Hong Kah North, on the other hand, is an area that I'm less familiar with.

"Over the next few weeks, I have to catch up, I have to be updated, I have to get myself familiar with the landscape, the topography - where are the hawker centres, where are the coffee shops - and what are the issues that the residents are having," added Ms Fu, who has been representing Yuhua since 2006.

On the boundary changes, Ms Fu had earlier said that this was expected for Yuhua, as it is a mature estate with a declining number of voters.