Works Minister S Samy Vellu said he should not be faulted just because several projects under the responsibility of his ministry had developed problems.

He said the landslides and heavy rain that caused the problems were beyond his control, Bernama reported today.

"Many people assume that any problem in a road must be man-made. Landslides and heavy rain are also blamed on humans. I ask everyone to be reasonable because these are not man-made problems," he said during a visit to the Km 303 site of the North-South Expressway near Gua Tempurung which was hit by a landslide on Monday.

'I am puzzled'

Samy said whoever became works minister would not be able to avoid the problems he faced because no one could stop the rain and landslides.

"I am puzzled how anyone could think human beings have the power to stop such problems from occurring," he said.

He added that all he could do was to work harder to improve his performance.