Picture: The Member of Parliament for Bintulu, Dato Seri Tiong King Sing JP. BINTULU - Government departments and agencies in the division have been urged to practise prudence and to hold dialogue sessions with members of the community before taking any drastic action. Member of Parliament for Bintulu Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said this was to avoid any unnecessary misundestanding besides government departments were supposed to be people-friendly. He was commenting on recent notices issued by Land and Surveys Department to some houseowners to stop running tuition classes at their respective residence. It is learnt that the department had invoked Section 33 of the Land Code to request suspected households to stop conducting tuition classes. Tiong said that based on feedback gathered through the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), Kidurong Branch's service centre, most of the households involved were actually assisting relatives' and neighbours' children to do their schoolwork and prepare for examinations. Besides, he added, the issue was probably under the purview of the Education Ministry. He also pointed out that it should be perfectly okay to conduct tuition classes on small scale basis, with number of participating students not exceeding 10. Tiong hoped that the issue would not turn into a bigger one as he believed it could be settled amicably through proper channel and interaction between people involved and the relevant department. He also called on the Land and Serveys Department not to be misled by certain quarters prior to proper investigation being carried out. He however did not rule out the possibility of some legal tuition centres not being too happy with the so-called 'unlicensed' competitors running tuition classes at residential homes. Tiong was of the view that these tuition classes came into being because some parents could not afford to send their children to licensed tuition centres due to locality, transport problem or high tuition fees.